332 



THE KINGFISHER 



Some writers say that the interior of the burrow is kept so scrupu- 

 lously clean that it is free from all evil scents. My own experience, 

 however, contradicts this assertion, for after introducing the hand into 

 a Kingfisher's nest I have always found it imbued with so offensive an 

 odor that I was fain to wash it repeatedly in the nearest stream. As 

 the Kingfisher is so piscatorial in its habits, it would naturally be im- 

 agined that the nest would be placed 

 in close connection with the stream 

 from which the parent birds obtained 

 their daily food. I have, however, 

 several times seen a Kingfisher's nest, 

 and obtained the eggs, in spots that 

 were not within half a mile of a fish- 

 inhabited stream. The bird is greatly 

 attached to the burrow in which it has 

 once made its nest, and will make use 

 of the same spot year after year, even 

 though the nest be plundered and the 

 eggs stolen. 



The eggs are from six to eight in 

 number, rather globular in form, and 

 of an exquisitely delicate pink in color 

 while fresh, changing to a pearly white 

 when the contents are removed. As 

 soon as the young are able to exert 

 themselves, they perch on a neighbor- 

 ing twig or other convenient resting-place, and squall incessantly for 

 food. In a very short time they assume their yearling plumage, 

 which is very nearly the same as that of the adult bird, and soon 

 learn to fish on their own account. 



The nest of the Kingfisher has long been known to consist of the 

 bones, scales, and other indigestible portions of the food, which are 

 ejected from the mouth by "castings," like those of the hawk or 

 owl; but until Mr. Gould recently procured a perfect Kingfisher's 

 nest, its shape and the manner of construction were entirely unknown. 

 His account of its discovery, and the ingenious manner in which 

 it was procured, is so interesting tliat it must be given in his own 

 words : 



"Ornithologists are divided in opinion as to whether the fish-bones 

 found in the cavity in which the Kingfisher deposits its eggs are to be 

 considered in the light of a nest or as merely the castings from the 

 bird during the period of incubation. Some are disposed to consider 

 these bones as entirely the castings and faeces of the young brood of 

 the year before they quit the nest, and that, the same hole being fre- 



The Belted Kingfisher 



{A Iced alcyon). 



