THE BELTED KINGFISHER 



chance that I guessed it, and focused on points they visited. 

 There was a little extra grace granted me because I did not dis- 

 turb the birds while brooding, for as sure as fate I do have best 

 luck when I work in ways that can not possibly injure the birds. 

 Once I got a splendid small picture of the male fishing from a 

 favorite spot on a dead branch along the river. He was near 

 enough and the focus sharp enough to give the detail of every 

 feather and to show distinctly the hard work he had done in ex- 

 cavating his tunnel, for his great beak was scarred from tip to 

 base by contact with stone and gravel. He was a noble bird, as 

 he struck that limb in front of my camera. If you want to realize, 

 as you never did before, just how funny the bird caricatures of 

 artists of brush and pencil are, compare some of their attempts at 

 drawing Kingfishers with these living free birds. 



I could not make a better picture than one of the female, also 

 fishing. But it was on a stump in mid-river that I capped the 

 climax. I pictured the female there, fishing alone, and was so de- 

 lighted with the plate that I set the camera a second day to learn 

 if by any chance I could improve it. By one of my special dispen- 

 sations I took the pair; the female dripping as she came up from a 

 plunge, the male with flaring crest, just an instant before he flat- 

 tened it and dived. 



In the thick of the series came a rare June freshet. The Lim- 

 berlost rose up to meet the river, and the water crept up and up un- 

 til the ditch and river were raging torrents, and all low country 

 was under water, and I had not finished with the babies. For three 

 days I worried, the fourth the rain stopped, the sun shone and I 

 started with Molly-cotton to drive to the pit. We followed a 

 short cut by way of a lane across Mr. Hale's farm, but we found 

 the water a few inches deep over the road before we reached the 

 Limberlost bridge. Molly-cotton was dubious, but I was deter- 

 mined and drove on to the bridge. Beyond it was a sight. 



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