BRITISH BIRDS. 295 



from the difficulty of finding the nest, that fre- 

 quently the hole which leads to it is under water. 

 The eggs are clear white. 



To notice the many strange and contradictory 

 accounts of this bird, as well as of its nest, trans- 

 mitted to us by the ancients,* and to enumerate 

 the properties ascribed to it by the superstitious 

 in all ages, would occupy too large a portion of 

 this work: but the following modern instance 

 seems worthy of notice : 



Dr. Heysham, of Carlisle, in his Catalogue of 

 Cumberland Animals, says, "On the yth of May, 

 a boy from Upperby brought me a King-fisher 

 alive, which he had taken Avhen sitting on her 

 eggs the night before: from him I received the 

 following information: Having often, this spring, 

 observed these birds frequent a bank upon the 

 river Peteril, he watched them carefully, and saw 

 them go into a small hole in the bank. The hole 

 was too small to admit his hand, but as it was 

 made in the soft mould, he easily enlarged it. It 

 was upwards of half a yard long; at the end of it 

 the eggs, which were six in number, were placed 



* Their nests are wonderful of the figure of a ball rather ele- 

 vated, with a. very narrow mouth; they look like a large sponge; 

 they cannot be cut with a knife, but may be broken with a smart 

 stroke: they have the appearance of petrified sea-froth. It is not 

 discovered of what they are formed; some think of Prickly-back 

 bones, since they live upon fish. Pliny. 



Aristotle compares the nest to a gourd, and its substance and 

 texture to those sea-balls or lumps of interwoven filaments which 

 are cut with difficulty : but, when dried, become friable. 



*Elictn and Plutarch describe it as being made to float on the 

 placid face of the ocean. 



