436 HISTORY OF 



the female continues to hatch even though dis- 

 turbed ; and though the nest be robbed, she will 

 again return and lay there. " I have had one 

 of those females brought me," says Reaumur, 

 " which was taken from her nest about three 

 leagues from my house. After admiring the 

 beauty of her colours, I let her fly again, when 

 the fond creature was instantly seen to return 

 back 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 third 

 time, and though the season was very far ad- 

 vanced. At each time she had seven eggs. The 

 older the nest is, the greater quantity of fish- 

 bones and scales does it contain : these are dis- 

 posed without any order, and sometimes take up 

 a good deal of room.** 



The female begins to lay early in the season, 

 and excludes her first brood about the beginning 

 of April. The male, whose fidelity exceeds even 

 that of the turtle, brings her large provisions of 

 fish while she is thus employed ; and she, con- 

 trary to most other birds, is found plump and fat 

 at that season. The male, that used to twitter 

 before this, now enters the nest as quietly and 

 as privately as possible. The .young ones are 

 hatched at the expiration of t\Venty days ; but 

 are seen to differ as well in their size as in their 

 beauty. 



As the ancients have had their fables concern- 

 ing this bird, so have the modern vulgar. It is 

 an opinion generally received among them, that 

 the flesh of the king-fisher will not corrupt, and 



