38 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



beetles. It excavates a hole in a bank or at a root 

 of a tree for its nest. Mr. George Dawson Rowley 

 has kindly furnished me with a nest and eggs of this 

 kind, with the following note : " Nest of the king- 

 fisher with seven eggs, a good deal incubated ; they 

 were found in a chamber under an overhanging bank. 



THE KINGFISHER. 



The eggs were placed on fish-bones which, having 

 been swallowed by the bird, were cast up. They 

 were a full inch deep, and formed a deep drain, evi- 

 dently placed there by design with the object of 

 allowing moisture in the nest to escape j the whole 



