212 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



makes a hole for itself. The bank chosen is a 

 soft gravelly one, such as those which often over- 

 hang the outer curve of an eddying pool. The 

 burrow is from two to three feet deep, and often 

 curved. At the end it is enlarged, so as to form 

 a sort of chamber, and on the floor of this are 

 laid six, or eight, round white eggs, of such 

 brilliant whiteness and transparency as to be ex- 

 cessively beautiful. The old birds show great 

 attachment to their home, and return to it year 

 after year. Even if their eggs are disturbed again 

 and again the same year, they will continue to 

 lay. In course of time the deposit of fish-bones 

 arising from the excrements of the birds accumu- 

 lates in the nest ; and as the eggs are laid on 

 these, it has been said that kingfishers purposely 

 make their nests of fish-bones ; but this we do 

 not think is the case. Stevenson, in his " Birds of 

 Norfolk," gives such an interesting account of the 

 discovery and analysis of a kingfisher's nest, that 

 but little apology is necessary for our quoting it 

 here. He says : 



" The drain or ' dyke,' as it is called in Norfolk, 

 was rather wide, and the hole, which I should 

 certainly have taken for a rat's, was about a foot 

 below the top of the bank, and the same distance 

 from the water. We first took the precaution to 

 introduce some paper into this aperture, spreading 

 it over the eggs, to prevent the soil from crumbling 

 into the nest, and then dug carefully down upon 



