THE KINGFISHER'S NEST 395 



dicular walls of sand ; and it is in these, for many 

 years past I can speak for some forty of them 

 that the kingfisher has found a secure home. The 

 hole is always made by the bird itself, and is in a 

 spot so sheer, that it is impossible for a rat or 

 weasel, and so crumbling, that it is difficult for any 

 larger foe, to climb up and disturb it. Its mouth is 

 just large enough to admit the bird ; it broadens 

 somewhat inside, and has a slight upward trend, till, 

 at the distance of three feet or so, it expands into 

 a little circular chamber, covered thickly with a bed 

 of minute bones or bone-dust, on which repose in 

 safety six or seven almost round eggs of glossy 

 white, very brittle, and with a distinct tinge of pink 

 from the yolk within. The bird always clings to 

 the same hole, till she is disturbed by a new landslip, 

 which sometimes exposes to view the nest itself, 

 with the castings, pellets, and bone-dust of many 

 years. The new hole may be discovered by the 

 fish-bones thrown out of it, which trickle in large 

 quantities, down the wall of sand, on to the more 

 level ground below. It has a noisome odour what 

 Trinculo would call "a very ancient and fish-like 

 smell " and is filthy in the extreme. Yet the bird 

 manages to pass in and out, many times a day, a 

 paragon of beauty, without one smudge or smirk on 



