78 



HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



ter, splashes furiously for a few seconds, emerges with a small 

 fish in its mouth, and then returns to land. Sometimes it seeks 

 again the perch from which it descended, and then, throwing in 

 the air the fish, which has all the while been held across the 

 beak, catches it dextrously head downward, swallows it with a 

 few eager gulps, and then looks out for another victim. Some- 



Kingfisher. 



times it darts with lightning speed along the bank, and, with a 

 quick flash of the azure plumage, settles for a moment upon the 

 bank, looks cautiously round, and then pops swiftly into a little 

 hole. Into this hole we will follow the bird. She always 

 chooses her residence by the water side, and selects for nidifica- 

 tion the deserted hole of some quadrupedal burrower. I have 

 even seen a Kingfisher's nest made in the side of a tiny rivulet 

 across which a child could step, and which served to conduct the 

 drainings of an upper to a lower field. 



