308 Where is the Nest? 



and bare by footsteps. But he prefers to devour 

 his fish either close to the water or in a somewhat 

 open place, and not too near bushes ; because while 

 thus on the ground he is not safe. When feeding his 

 young he will carry a fish apparently as long as him- 

 self a considerable distance. 



One summer I went several days in succession to 

 a hedge two fields distant from the nearest brook, and 

 hid in the mound with a gun. I had not been there 

 long before a kingfisher flew past, keeping just clear 

 of the hedge, but low down and close under the 

 boughs of the trees, and going in a direction which 

 would not lead to a brook or pond. This seemed 

 curious ; but presently he came back again, uttering 

 the long whistle which is his peculiar note. About an 

 hour, perhaps less, elapsed when he returned again, 

 this time carrying something in his beak that gleamed 

 white and silvery in the sun a fish. The next day 

 it was the same, and the next. The kingfisher, or 

 rather two of them, 'went continually to and fro, 

 and it was astonishing what a number of fish they 

 took. Never more than an hour, often less, elapsed 

 without one or other going by. The fish varied 

 much in size, sometimes being very small. 



They had a nest, of course, somewhere ; but, being 

 under the idea that they always built near brooks or 

 in the high banks often seen at the back of ponds, it 

 was difficult for me to imagine where the nest could 

 be. To all appearance they flew straight through a 

 small opening in another hedge, at the corner of the 

 two in fact, about two hundred yards distant. Pres- 

 ently it occurred to me that this might be an illusion, 

 that the birds did not really pass through the hedge, 

 but had a nest somewhere in that corner. 



