AN OCTOBER DIARY. 305 



original opening. I then made a hole in the cliff, just 

 three feet to the left of the nest. The whole act was 

 but the work of a moment and I was out of sight, I 

 think, before either bird saw what I was at. I had but 

 to wait for a minute before one of the birds came back 

 and was making a bee-line for the nest. Although fly- 

 ing at a high rate of speed, it stopped suddenly in mid- 

 air when within six or eight feet of the bluff, gave a 

 shrill cry, presumably of disgust, and turned awa3\ It 

 sailed along the bluff for a few yards in each direction, 

 but took no notice, apparently, of the hole I had made. 

 Then it flew back to the creek, as if to survey the cliff 

 from a distance, and then returned to the very spot 

 where I had been at work. Supporting itself both by 

 claws and wings, much as a chimney-swift holds to the 

 bricks near its nest, the kingfisher used its bill as a 

 shovel and soon removed the ball of clay. It entered 

 the nest, remained about one minute, and flew away 

 towards the creek. Joining its mate there, it told her, 

 I suppose, of what had happened. At all events, neither 

 came back, but in a few days made a new nest, half a 

 mile away. 



One of the charms of a country ramble is the pos- 

 sibility of a wholly unexpected occurrence, a sort of 

 gathering grapes from thistles. I lately read that a 

 foolish woodcock flew directly to the doorstep of Del- 

 monico's. A friend, not long since, captured a lovely 

 ring-snake in town, as it was crossing the pavement ; so 

 I, to-day, wandering in the gully, watching the robins 

 feast upon chicken-grapes, saw a crow act the part of a 



