Pajmtar HBtctumarj? of &mmatrtr $atuv*. 359 



rate height, now poised in tlie breeze on 

 fluttering pinion, now resting in the void 

 apparently without motion ; till, at last, 

 down he comes, like a falling stone, upon 

 the unconscious prey below." That discern- 

 ing friend of the feathered tribes, Mr. Wa- 

 terton, whose words we have just quoted, 

 thus apostrophizes in this bird's favour : 

 " Did the nurseryman, the farmer, and the 

 country gentleman, know the value of the 

 'Windhover's services, they would vie with 

 each other in offering him a safe retreat. | 

 He may be said to live almost entirely on 

 mice ; and mice, you know, are not the 

 friends of man ; for they bring desolation to 

 the bee-hive, destruction to the pea-bed, and 

 spoliation to the corn-stack. Add to this, 

 they arc extremely injurious to the planter 

 of trees." Again, " I prize the services of the 

 Windhover Hawk, which are manifest by 

 the quantity of mice he destroys ; and I do 

 all in my power to put this pretty bird on a 

 good footing with the gamekeepers and 

 sportsmen of our neighbourhood. Were this 

 bird properly protected, it would repay our 

 kindness with interest ; and we should then 

 have the Windhover by day, and the owls 

 by night, to thin the swarms of mice which 

 overrun the land." " The Windhover," he 

 further observes, " is a social bird, and, un- 

 like most other hawks, it seems fond of 

 taking up its abode near the haunts of men. 

 What heartfelt pleasure I often experience 

 in watching the evolutions of this handsome 

 little falcon ! and with what content I see 

 the crow and the magpie forming their own 

 nests ; as I know that, on the return of an- 

 other spring, these very nests will afford 

 shelter to the Windhover ! Were I to allow 

 the crow and the magpie to be persecuted, 

 there would be no chance for the Wind- 

 hover to rear its progeny here ; for Nature 

 has not taught this bird the art of making 

 its nest in a tree. How astonishing, and 

 how diversified, are the habits of birds 1 The 

 Windhover is never known to make use of 

 a nest until it has been abandoned for good 

 and all by the rightful owner ; whilst, on 

 the contrary, the cuckoo lays her egg in 

 one of which the original framer still retains 

 possession." 



KING-BIRD. A name given to the Ty- 

 rant Flycatcher. (Muscicapa Tyrannus.") 

 [See TYJIANT FLYCATCHEK.] 



KING -FISH. [SeeOpAH.] 



KINGFISHER. (Alcedo.) A rather nu- 

 merous genus of birds, and widely diffused 

 in warm climates, although there is but one 

 species occurring in Europe. They are, in 

 general, birds of an inelegant shape, the head 

 being large in proportion to the size of the 

 body, and the legs and feet very small ; but 

 they are of singular brilliancy of plumage, 

 in which blue, green, and orange are the 

 prevailing colours. They are distinguished 

 by having a long, straight, strong, and acute 

 bill ; wings rather short ; body thick and 

 compact ; head large and elongated ; plumage 

 thick and glossy. In some of the larger 

 species, however, the colours are more ob- 

 ecure, exliibiting a mixture of brown, black, 



and white, variously modified in the different 

 birds. In their manners they all seem to 

 agree ; frequenting the banks of rivers, &c., 

 where, perched on a branch of a tree, or other 

 projecting object, they will remain motion- 

 less for hours, watching till some fish comes 

 under its station, when the bird dives per- 

 pendicularly down into the water, and brings 

 up its prey with its feet, carries it to land, 

 kills it by repeated strokes of the bill, and 

 immediately swallows it : afterwards casting 

 up the scales and other indigestible parts, hi 

 pellets, like birds of prey. 



The COMMOK or EUROPEAN KINGFISHER. 

 (Alcedo ispida.) This retired and solitary 

 bird, which is only to be found near rivers, 

 brooks, or stagnant waters, subsisting en- 

 tirely on the smaller kinds of fish, is only 

 seven inches in length, and eleven in breadth: 

 its bill is nearly two inches long, the upper 

 mandible being black, and rather red at the 

 base ; the under one, as well as the inside of 

 the mouth, orange-coloured : the throat is 

 white : the crown of the head is a deep shining 

 green, with numerous transverse bright blue 

 streaks : the shoulders and whole wings dark 

 green, but the edges of the quill feathers are 

 glossed with pale blue, and the shoulders 

 marked by numerous small blue spots. The 

 middle of the back, the rump, and coverts of 

 the tail are of a most resplendent azure : 

 the tail is very short, and of a deep rich 

 blue colour ; and the whole under part of 

 the body is of a bright orange : legs red ; 

 claws black. The female commonly deposits 

 her eggs (which are from five to eight in 

 number, and perfectly white) in a hole in 

 the river's banks, which has probably been 

 made by the mole or the water-rat. If the 

 nest be robbed, the bird returns and lays in 

 the same situation. " I have had," says 

 Reaumur, " one of these females brought 

 me, taken from her nest about three leagues 

 from my house. After admiring the beauty 

 of her colours, I permitted her to fly ; when 

 the fond creature was instantly seen to repair 

 to the nest where she had just before been 

 made a captive : there joining the male, she 

 again began to lay, though it was for the 

 tlurd time, and the season was very far ad- 

 vanced. At each time she had seven eggs." 

 In this country the Kingfisher begins to lay 

 early in the season, and excludes her first 

 brood about the beginning of April. The 

 fidelity of the male exceeds that of the 

 turtle : he brings the female large supplies 

 of fish during the season of incubation ; and 

 she, contrary to most other birds, is always 

 plump and fat at that time. The male, 

 who on other occasions always makes a twit- 

 tering noise, now enters the nest with all 

 the silence and circumspection imaginable. 

 The young are hatched at the expiration of 

 twenty days ; but they do not acquire the 

 beauty of their plumage till after the first 

 moulting season. This bird is usually seen 

 flying rapidly near the surface of the stream ; 

 and the velocity with which it maintains its 

 flight, considering the shortness of its wings, 

 is really surprising. 



The ancients attributed to the Kingfisher 

 innumerable habits and properties equally 



