THE KINGFISHER. 243 



creature around them. Gamekeepers, too, are up in arms 

 against him, because of his inordinate love of preying on 

 the finny tribe. 



Where the Kingfisher now is seen is in the most 

 secluded places ; where the trout streams murmur 

 through the silent woods, but seldom trod by the foot of 

 man ; or in the wooded gullies down which the stream 

 from the mountains far above rushes and tumbles over 

 the huge rocks, or lies in pools smooth as the finest 

 mirror. It is here we sometimes see the Kingfisher flit 

 past us in his rapid flight, and it is in these flights that 

 the bird's gorgeous plumage shows to advantage. But 

 when he is sitting motionless as death on a bough over- 

 hanging the calm and lucid pool, with his reflection 

 showing in the clear waters, and the noonday sun 

 shining upon his back, then he is seen in all the 

 glorious splendour of his rich and refulgent plumage 

 plumage which, to place it in its proper sphere, more 

 befits the spicy groves of the tropics than our cold and 

 foggy northern isle. Ah ! our heavy step has alarmed 

 him ; he is off like an arrow in his rapid flight, and we 

 can trace him far down the stream in his straight and 

 unwavering course, appearing as an emerald streak of 

 light. Observe him closely, and we find that he seldom 

 or never flies over the bridges, always under them. Man 

 has observed this peculiar habit of the Kingfisher, and 

 taken advantage of it, by putting a silken net over the 

 bridge. The bird in its rapid flight unwittingly enters its 

 toils and becomes an easy prey. The Kingfisher is com- 

 paratively a silent bird, though he sometimes utters a 

 few harsh notes as he flies swift as a meteor through the 

 wooded glades. You not unfrequently flush the King- 

 fisher from the holes in the banks, and amongst the 

 brambles skirting the stream. He roosts at night in 



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