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tasting the fish they caught, began to swoop 

 for themselves. 



The first plunges were usually in vain, and 

 when a minnow was caught it was undoubt- 

 edly one of the wounded fish that Koskome- 

 nos had placed there in the lively swarm to 

 encourage his little ones. After a try or two, 

 however, they seemed to get the knack of 

 the thing and would drop like a plummet, 

 bill first, or shoot down on a sharp incline 

 and hit their fish squarely as it darted away 

 into deeper water. The river was wild and 

 difficult, suitable only for expert fishermen. 

 The quietest pools had no fish, and where 

 minnows were found the \vater or the banks 

 were against the little kingfishers, who had 

 not yet learned to hover and take their fish 

 from the wing. So Koskomenos had found 

 a suitable pool and stocked it himself to 

 make his task of teaching more easy for' his 

 mate and more profitable for his little ones. 

 The most interesting point in his method 

 was that, in this case, he had brought the 

 minnows alive to his kindergarten, instead 



killing or wounding them, as in the first 



