53(5 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Deposits its eggs in holes. 



months, by means of small fish put into basons 

 of water, on which they fed; for, on experiment, 

 they refused all other kinds of nourishment. 



This bird lays its eggs, to the number of seven 

 or more, in a bole in the bank of the river or 

 stream that it frequents. Dr. Heysham, who 

 had a female brought alive to him at Carlisle, by 

 a boy who said he had taken it the preceding 

 night when sitting on its eggs, informs us, that 

 " having often observed these birds frequent a 

 bank upon the river Peteril, he had watched 

 them carefully, and at last saw them go into a 

 small hole in the bank. The hole was too narrow 

 to admit his hand ; but as it was made in soft 

 mould, he easily enlarged it. It was upwards of 

 half a yard long : at the end of it the eggs, which 

 were six in number, were placed upon the bare 

 mould, without the smallest appearance of a 

 nest." The eggs were considerably larger than 

 those of the yellow-hammer, and of a transparent 

 white colour. 



It appears, from a still later account than this, 

 that the direction of the holes is always upward; 

 that they are enlarged at the end; and have 

 there a kind of bedding formed of the bones of 

 small fish, and some other substances, evidently 

 the castings of the parent animals. This is ge- 

 nerally about half an inch thick, and mixed in, 

 with the earth. There is every reason to believe, 

 that both male and female come to this spot for 

 no other purpose than to eject the refuse of their 



