398 BIRD LIFE AT BINGHAM'S MELCOMBE 



in Bass Strait which, as Bishop Montgomery has 

 shown, in an admirable description, in the Ibis, have 

 to go very far away to fish, and remain away from 

 their young all day come home, in the evening, 

 similarly laden. 



The kingfisher's flight is straight, and swift as 

 an arrow, down the main river. She announces her 

 approach, a second or two before you see her, by a 

 shrill cry, three times repeated, as unmistakable in 

 its sound as it is difficult to reproduce. Down she 

 comes, flashing like a meteor in the sun, often 

 closely pursued, in amorous play, by her mate, a 

 second meteor, re-echoing her cry. As she 

 approaches, it is her bright chestnut breast which 

 most attracts attention ; after she has passed, it is 

 the tail coverts of verderer blue, the most exquisite 

 of all colours, which enchains and enchants the eye, 

 and almost seems to leave behind it a trail of 

 brilliancy. It is a little bit of the tropics trans- 

 ported, for a moment, into our more sombre 

 northern atmosphere. In their flirtations, they will 

 sometimes rise high in air and top the tallest trees. 

 I have seen one fly over "the old thatched rectory" 

 at Stafford, making for the nest which, in one year, 

 it constructed in a strange place indeed a deep 

 railway cutting. It happened to be the very year 



