THE KINGFISHER 



body held almost vertically. Every now and then the head is thrust 

 forwards, and first one eye, then the other, surveys the flood. No 

 sooner is a victim sighted than. \\ith .1 Midden downward plunge, he 

 sei/es it and hears it hack to the stump, or bough, as the case may be, 

 which forms thr perch. There, if it be a fish, it is beaten two or 

 three times against the perch, and deftly swallowed head foremost 

 Sometimes, however, the plunge is fruitless, and sometimes I have 

 seen him hover like a kestrel over the water, before darting down. 

 Shi^s. worm-, and leeche-. according to .Montagu. are aUo eaten, hut 

 this must be under pressure, surely. Stevenson, in his delightful 

 Birds of Norfolk, quotes a case of one which captured a shrew, but it 

 cost the captor its life, for it was choked by the unusual morsel ; and 

 a similar painful death sometimes follows the capture of the ruffe and 

 iniller's-thumb, for if these be large the spines on the gill-covers catch 

 in the bird's throat and there remain fixed. 



Unfortunately this moot beautiful of our native birds is nowhere 

 very common ; for it is, in the first place, of an exceedingly pugna- 

 cious disposition, and will brook no rivals on its own stretch of water, 

 and in the second, as we have already remarked, under one pretext 

 or another, it is remorselessly shot down. Hard winters, again, tell 

 heavily upon its numbers, for when the streams are ice-bound many, 

 from loss of vitality, get frozen to their perches. Some migrate to 

 the coast, and there contrive to find a sufficiency in the rock-pools. 

 But if these be wind-swept, and their surface continually ruffled, 

 death from starvation is inevitable, for the bird cannot see its 

 prey. 



At all times an extremely wary bird, it is exceedingly difficult to 

 approach, making off like an arrow before it is itself discovered. 

 Indeed, but for its unfortunate habit of expressing its alarm by a 

 shrill p&p, peep, as it dashes away, its presence would often remain 

 miMivpected, for, in spite of its brilliant coloration, it is by no means 

 a conspicuous bird : though, when flying low over the water, the 

 wonderful blue of the back stands out with tolerable distinctness. 



