154 



BIRD-LAND ECHOES. 



to occasional failures. If my observations are cor- 

 rect, its impatience, if not anger, is aroused by a 

 blunder, and it darts and dashes and utters its wild cry 

 until exertion soothes it, when, leaving the gloomy 

 spot, it skims the wild water-way until the pond 



above is reached, 

 and in brighter 

 daylight wonders 

 why it fails at times, 

 or is it merely 

 waiting for the next 

 fish. . that comes 

 along ? Whatever 

 its thoughts, in a 

 moment its atten- 

 tion is centred on 

 some object be- 

 neath it. There is 

 a tremor through 

 the loose-lying 

 feathers of its crest, 

 and the bird dives, 

 this time with 

 deadly aim, and 

 emerges with a 

 minnow in its beak. 

 Though most people will doubtless consider it a 

 wholly unwarrantable assumption, yet it seems to me 

 that if any bird sits still and thinks, it is the perching 

 kingfisher, and in this respect I do not except our 

 hawks. But I am an extremist as regards a bird's men- 



Kingfisher. 



