British Birds, their Nests and Eggs. 125 



protection. The high-flying, loud-screeching 

 swift is an instance of this. So is the burrowing 

 sand-martin, the kingfisher, the shell-duck, and 

 the woodpecker ; also the puffin and the stock- 

 dove, which breed in disused rabbit burrows. 

 All these lay white eggs. 



The hole which the swift selects is usually in 

 a high building ; while the delicate bank-swallows 

 drill their holes in river banks or sandholes. 

 The eggs of the kingfisher are perhaps the most 

 beautiful of all. They are beautifully round, 

 delicately white, glossy, and suffused with an 

 exquisite rosy flush. For breeding, the king- 

 fisher either drills a hole for itself or occupies 

 that deserted by some small rodent. The seven 

 or eight eggs are placed at the end of the 

 burrow, upon a mass of dry fish bones ejected by 

 the bird. The nest is so friable that it is almost 

 impossible to remove it, and at one time it was 

 said that the authorities at the British Museum 

 were prepared to pay one hundred pounds for an 

 absolutely perfect nest of the kingfisher. 



The sheld is the largest and handsomest of 

 British ducks. It invariably breeds in a burrow 

 on a plateau commanding the sea, and when 

 approaching its nest plumps right down at the 

 mouth of the hole. Its creamy eggs are large 

 and round ; and for a day or so after the young 

 are hatched they are kept underground. Emerging 

 from their retreat, they are immediately led or 



