KINGFISHER'S KINDERGARTEN 105 



few pleasures and fewer companions to share 

 them with him. This is doubtless the result of 

 his peculiar fishing regulations, which give to 

 each kingfisher a certain piece of lake or stream 

 for his own. Only the young of the same family 

 go fishing together that seems to be the law on 

 the lakes and rivers of the far west, possibly the 

 same unwritten law prevails amongst our own 

 kingfishers, for certainly they are solitary birds 

 on our rivers. 



The charm of this " hunter without a gun " is 

 that he prowls about in the night-time in the 

 great backwoods, not to kill and destroy, but 

 lovingly to watch and find out the secrets of the 

 inner lives of the denizens of the forest; and he 

 finishes his book by saying that " the very best 

 thing that can be said of the ' hunter without a 

 gun ' is ' that the wilderness and the solitary place 

 shall be glad for him,' for something of the gentle 

 spirit of Saint Francis comes with him, and when 

 he goes he leaves no death, nor pain, nor fear of 

 man behind him." 



