452 THE KINGFISHER 



tion, since in its case the female is brightly coloured, like the male, 

 though a little duller, and she breeds in a burrow. The mallard and 

 the pheasant afford instances of the opposite kind, wherein the males 

 are brightly coloured, while the females are sombrely clad, and nest in 

 relatively exposed places. Yet it is curious that, as we have already 

 pointed out, in some woodpeckers the female, though nesting in 

 holes, loses certain conspicuous colour patches on reaching maturity, 

 and thereby is less like the adult male than when in the first teleop- 

 tyle plumage ! 



The kingfishers, again, present an interesting illustration of that 

 strange evolution of the coloration of the sexes, and of the young, 

 which was first pointed out by Darwin. With our own bird, as every- 

 body knows, the sexes are barely distinguishable, and the young in 

 their first plumage can hardly be distinguished from the adults. But 

 in a number of species the female differs more or less conspicuously 

 from the male, and the young from both, the adults wearing a bright, 

 the young a dull plumage, as, for example, in species of the genera 

 Ceryle and Carcineutes. 



Bearing these facts in mind, surely, in contemplating this living 

 jewel of our streams, we shall be the more eager to watch its every 

 action and discover the key to some of the many riddles it represents. 

 In its choice of haunts it is bound only by one condition, the neigh- 

 bourhood of water. But it will contrive to find a congenial home in 

 the marshy wastes of the fenlands, fishing in dykes as easily as in the 

 more picturesque northern counties where limpid streams make their 

 way along rock-bound gorges, with all their attendant splendour of 

 moss and fern, straggling bushes, and tall trees. Sticklebacks and 

 minnows, or even shrimps and aquatic insects, serve them as well as 

 the jealously guarded trout. In Norfolk I have commonly found the 

 kingfisher feeding on the shrimps that swarm in the brackish water 

 which fills the dykes there, though this diet is varied by the fry of the 

 various "coarse" fish which also abound. He exhibits all the patience 

 of the true fisherman, sitting motionless awaiting his prey, with the 



