344 BRITISH BIRDS. 



commonly on the banks of the Derwent in Derbyshire ; and this little 

 bright feathered gem is, with the Grey Wagtail, the Dipper, and the Sand- 

 piper, one of the most interesting river-side birds of this wild romantic 

 district of limestone crags and steep rocky glens and moors. I once took 

 the nest of this bird on the banks of this stream near Ashopton. Some of 

 the birds' droppings near the entrance of the hole caught the attention of 

 my friend Mr. Charles Doncaster and myself, although we had for some 

 time previously been aware that the bird was building in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, several holes having been commenced and abandoned. 

 The hole in question was nearly straight, and we put a walking-stick 

 up it for nearly three feet ; it was of an irregular tunnel-shape rising 

 gradually from the entrance. Having enlarged the hole for about a 

 foot, I thrust my hand in as far as I could reach. I found the bottom of 

 the passage lined with a black or dark green gluey substance smelling 

 strongly of fish, and almost as sticky as bird-lime. After digging and en- 

 larging the passage nearly a foot further we reached the end a chamber 

 about eight inches in diameter, with two handfuls of white dry fish-bones 

 at the bottom, apparently those of very small fish (vertebrae, jaw-bones, 

 and a profusion of ribs like short hairs, most likely of the fry of the trout). 

 Underneath the fish-bones was a lining of the same glue as in the passage, 

 and upon them three round shining pink eggs. The Kingfisher, in spite 

 of its brilliant dress, is a slatternly bird. It may fairly be called an C( ill 

 bird," since it fouls its own nest and its peerless eggs, but not a speck of 

 the filthy glue was to be seen on them. This substance is composed of 

 decaying fish and the droppings of the birds, and in many nests swarms 

 with maggots. The Kingfisher does not make any more nest than that 

 which the ejected fish-bones supply. No grass, straws, or feathers serve 

 as a bed for the eggs ; and in the exceptional cases where such material 

 has been found, it was most probably the remains of a Martin's nest or 

 that of a water-rat, in whose holes the Kingfisher sometimes rears its 

 young. The hole is bored rather slowly, and takes from one to two weeks 

 to complete. 



Upon this nest of fish-bones, if nest it can be properly called, the female 

 Kingfisher deposits her round shining- white eggs, from six to eight or nine 

 in number ; I have a clutch of the latter number, taken in Oxfordshire. 

 As is the case with most white eggs before they are blown, the yolk inside 

 gives them a beautiful pink appearance. They vary in length from -95 

 to -87 inch, and in breadth from -8 to "72 inch. Kingfishers' eggs are 

 not easily confused with those of any other British bird ; for their rotund 

 shape distinguishes them from those of the Woodpeckers, and their size 

 from those of the Bee-eaters, with which latter birds they, however, show 

 considerable affinity. 



Both parents assist in incubation, and when the young are hatched they 



