AN UNMISTAKABLE DWELLING 



understand how the kingfisher manages, with its short, stiff 

 feathers, to brood on them all at once. 



The excavation of its nesting hole occupies the kingfisher 

 during two or three weeks, for these birds are by no means 

 such rapid workers as the sand martins. When a stone 

 happens to lie in the course of the tunnel it is removed if it 

 be not too large; otherwise the burrow is diverted to one 

 side of it ; and from this cause the tunnels made by king- 

 fishers are often very tortuous. If there be too many 

 obstacles in the way of progress, however, the bird abandons 

 the tunnel and makes a fresh attempt elsewhere. In their 

 method of nesting the kingfisher and the woodpeckers pre- 

 sent certain similarities, but with this difference, that while 

 the former excavates its home in the earth, the latter attacks 

 dead or diseased wood. So long as they are not molested 

 a pair of kingfishers may occupy the same nest year after 

 year; but if the entrance to their dwelling be enlarged no 

 eggs are ever deposited there afterwards. 



Bechstein states that it is quite easy to recognize a nest 

 which has already been inhabited by the presence of heads 

 and wings of dragon-flies amongst the fish-bones. In a new 

 nest the fish-bones are fewer, and the remains of dragon-flies 

 are not found until it has been occupied by a young brood. 

 A kingfisher's nest can, of course, be distinguished at a 

 single glance from a rat-hole or the burrow of any other 

 animal. Nor is it more difficult to tell when it is in- 

 habited, for then the fishy odour is obtrusive and unmis- 

 takable. 



The pertinacity with which a kingfisher remains on her 

 eggs or with the newly hatched young within the nest is 

 remarkable. Beat on the earth as hard and as long as you 

 will, it is impossible to drive the bird from her hole ; even 

 the noise and violence attending the enlargement of the 



