52 THE KINGFISHER. CHAP. m. 



One day lie saw a Kingfisher a great event in 

 his life ! What a beautiful bird ! What a sparkling 

 gem of nature! Eesplendent in plumage and gor- 

 geous in colour from the bright turquoise blue to the 

 deepest green, and the darker shades of copper and 

 gold. Edward was on a nesting excursion, with 

 some little fellows like himself, along the braes of the 

 Don, and at some distance above the Auld Brig, 

 when he first saw this lustrous bird. " I was greatly 

 taken," he says, " with its extraordinary beauty, and 

 much excited by seeing it dive into the stream. I 

 thought it would drown itself, and that its feathers 

 would eventually become so clogged with water that 

 it would not be able to fly. Had this happened 

 which, of course, it did not my intention was to 

 have plunged in to the rescue, when, as a matter of 

 course, I would have claimed the prize as my re- 

 ward. Thus buoyed up, I wandered up and down 

 the river after the bird, until the shades of even 

 came down and forced me to give up the pursuit ; 

 and I then discovered, having continued the chase 

 so long, that I was companionless, and had to return 

 home alone. 



" It so happened, that for a month or two during 

 summer-time, owing to the scarcity of water, one 

 part of the factory worked during the night-time and 

 the other during the day-time, week and week about. 

 This was a glorious time for me. I rejoiced particu- 

 larly in the night work. We got out at six in the 



