4.38 



HISTORY OF 



Tlie king-fisher, as Bellonius says, feeds upon fish, but is inca- 

 pable of digesting the bones and scales, which he tlirows up 

 again, as eagles and owls are seen to do a part of their prey. 

 These fill the bird's nest of course ; and although they seem as 

 if designedly placed there, are only a kind of nuisance. 



In these holes, which, from the remains of fish brought there, 

 are very foetid, the king-fisher is often found with from five eggs 

 to nine. There the female continues to hatch, even though dis- 

 turbed ; and though the nest be robbed, she will again return and 

 lay there. " I have had one of those females brought me," says 

 Reaumur, " which was taken from her nest about three leagues 

 from my house. After admiring the beauty of her colours, I let 

 her fly again, when the fond creature was instantly seen to return 

 back to the nest where she had just before been made a captive. 

 There, joining the male, she again began to lay, though it was 

 for the third time, and though the season was very far advanced. 

 At each time she had seven eggs. The older the nest is, the 

 greater quantity of fish-bones and scales does it contain : these 

 are disposed without any order ; and sometimes take up a good 

 deal of room." 



The female begins to lay early in the season ; and excludes 

 her first brood about the beginning of April. The male, whose 

 fidelity exceeds even that of the turtle, brings her large provisions 

 of fish while she is thus employed ; and she, contrary to most 

 other birds, is found plump and fat at that season. The male, 



chpr, the possessor of the bird, to account for the pheiiumenon ; for, not. 

 withstanding his personal testimony, the whole story is evidently no lesa 

 fabulous than the tradition of the dried body of the same bird having^ the 

 property of preserving- cloth and woollen stutfs from the moth, which once 

 induced drapers to liaug it up in their shops. But this is nothing to the pre- 

 tended power of the lifeless skin of averting thunder, augmenting hidden 

 treasure, bestowing grace and beauty on the person who carries it, aud re- 

 uewing its plumage each season of moulting. 



(imelin tells us that the Tartars pluck the feathers from h kingfisher, 

 " cast them into the water, and carefully preserve such as float, pretending 

 that, if with one of these feathers they touch a woman, or even her clothes, 

 the must fall in love with Ihem. The Ostiacs take the skin, the bill, and the 

 claws of this bird, shutting them up in a purse, and so long as tliey preserve 

 this sort of amulet they believe they have no ill to fear. The person who 

 taught me this means of living happy could not forbear shedding tears while 

 he told me that the loss of a kingtislier's skin had caused him to lose both his 

 wife and his goods." Forster oiu' uaviyalur, records a similar superstition 

 in tlie jX'ople of Ulietea. 



