278 Birds. 



to death, and afterwards swallows. When it cannot 

 find a projecting bough, it sits on some stone near the 

 brink, or even on the gravel ; but the moment it per- 

 ceives the fish, it takes a spring upwards of twelve 

 or fifteen feet, and drops from that height upon its 

 prey. 



The Kingfisher lays its eggs, to the number of seven or 

 more, in a hole in the bank of the river or stream that it 

 frequents. Dr. Heysham had a female brought alive to 

 him at Carlisle by a boy, who said he had taken it the 

 preceding night when sitting on its eggs. His informa- 

 tion on the subject was, that "having often observed 

 these birds frequent a bank upon the river Peteril, he had 

 watched them carefully, and at last he saw them go into 

 a small hole in the bank. The hole was too narrow to 

 admit his hand ; but, as it was made in soft mould, he 

 easily enlarged it. It was upwards of half a yard long ; 

 at the end of it the eggs, which were six in number, 

 were placed upon the bare mould, without the smallest 

 appearance of a nest." The eggs were considerably larger 

 than those of the yellow-hammer, and of a transparent 

 white colour. It appears, from a still later account, that 

 the direction of the holes is always upward ; that they 

 are enlarged at the end, and have there a kind of bedding 

 formed of the bones of small fish, and some other sub- 

 stances, evidently the castings of the parent animals. 

 This bedding is generally half an inch thick, and mixed 

 with earth ; and on it the female deposits and hatches 

 her eggs. When the young ones are nearly full-feathered 

 they are extremely voracious ; and as the old birds do 

 not supply them with all the food they can devour, they 

 are continually chirping, and may be discovered by 

 their noise, 



