72 BIRD LIFE IN A WESTERN VALLEY 



former positions, and, as if in obedience to her 

 injunctions, remained quite still and silent. Both 

 parent birds now kept watch intently on the 

 pool where the water flowed slowly over the 

 submerged shelf of rock. 



The male was the first to leave his perch. 

 Quickly lowering his head, he dived with a splash 

 into the river and disappeared, but soon came up 

 with a minnow wriggling in his beak, and returned 

 to his resting-place, where he killed the fish by a 

 few smart blows on the branch. Instantly the 

 little kingfishers, their appetites sharpened by 

 the sight of the silvery minnow, crowded about 

 their parent, and snatched the prize from his 

 possession. The hen also dived from her perch, 

 but failed to catch a fish, and immediately 

 resumed her watch on the pool. The minnows 

 did not reappear till all the occupants of the 

 bough were once more motionless. In her second 

 dive the mother bird was successful ; she carried 

 an unusually fat minnow to the bough and 

 surrendered it to her little ones. 



After obtaining a fish for the third time, she 

 changed her methods and dropped the disabled 

 minnow into the river just as her fledglings were 

 striving to take it from her. One of the young 

 birds, eager to grasp the dainty, slipped from the 

 bough, but, fearing to enter the water, soon 

 struggled back to its perch. Several times in 



