THE BELTED KINGFISHER 



the birds while brooding, for as sure as fate I do have best 

 luck when I work in ways that can not possibly injure the birds. 

 Once I got a splendid small picture of the male fishing from a 

 favourite spot on a dead branch above the river. He was near 

 enough and the focus sharp enough to give the detail of every 

 feather to show distinctly the hard work he had done in excavat- 

 ing his tunnel, for his big beak was scarred' from tip to base 

 by contact with stone and gravel. He was a noble bird, as he 

 perched in front of my camera. If you want to realize, as you 

 never have before, how amusing the bird caricatures of artists of 

 brush and pencil are, compare some of their attempts at drawing 

 Kingfishers with these living free birds. 



I could not make a better picture than one I had of the female, 

 also fishing; but it was on a stump in mid-river that I "capped 

 the climax." I pictured the female there, fishing alone, then was 

 so delighted with the plate that I set the camera a second day to 

 learn if by any chance I could improve it. By one of my special 

 dispensations I took the pair; the female -dripping as she came 

 up from a plunge, the male with flaring crest, only an instant 

 before he flattened it to dive. 



In the midst of the series came a rare June freshet. The 

 Limberlost arose to meet the river; the water crept up and up 

 until the ditch and river were raging torrents, while all low 

 country was under water. I had not finished with the babies. 

 For three days I worried, the fourth the rain stopped, the sun 

 shone, so I started with Molly-Cotton to drive to the pit. 'We 

 followed a short route through a lane across Mr. Hale's farm, 

 but we found the water a few inches deep over the road before we 

 reached the Limberlost bridge. Molly-Cotton was dubious, but 

 I was determined, so we drove on to the bridge. Beyond it was a 

 terrifying sight. 



The water of the big ditch was running like a mill-race; the 



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