THE COMMON KINGFISHER, 133 



THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 



The length of the Kingfisher is seven inches, and its breadth eleveii, 

 The bill is nearly two inches long, and black ; but the base of the 

 lower mandible is yellow. The top of the head, and the sides of the 

 body, are of a dark green, marked with transverse spots of blue. The 

 tail is of a deep blue ; and the other parts of the body are of a dusky 

 orange, white, and black. The legs are red. 



In the beauty and brilliancy of its plumage, the Common Kingfisher 

 far excels all the other species of British birds. Its shape is, however, 

 somewhat inelegant, from, the great disproportion there is, in size, 

 between the head and bill, and the other parts of the body. 



Its usual prey consists of the smaller kinds of fish, It frequently 

 sits on a branch projecting over the current : there it remains motion- 

 less, and often watches whole hours, to catch the moment when a little 

 fish rises to the surface of the water under its station; it dives perpen- 

 dicularly into the water, where it continues several seconds, and then 

 brings up the fish, which it carries to land, beats to death, and after- 

 wards swallows. 



When the Kingfisher cannot find a projecting bough, it sits on 

 some stone near the brink, or even on the gravel; but the moment it 

 perceives the fish, it takes a spring upward, of twelve or fifteen feet, 

 and drops perpendicularly from that height. Often it is observed to 

 stop short in its rapid course, and remain stationary, hovering (in a 

 manner not unlike some of the Hawk tribe) over the same spot for 

 several seconds. Such is its mode in winter, when the muddy swell 

 of the stream, or the thickness of the ice, constrains it to leave the 

 rivers, and ply along the sides of the unfrozen brooks. At each pause 

 it continues, as it were, suspended at the height of fifteen or twenty 

 feet ; and, when it would change its pla<}e, it sinks, and skims along 

 within a foot of the surface of the water, then rises and halts again. 

 This repeated and almost continual exercise, shows that the bird dives 

 for many small objects, fishes or insects, and often in vain; for in this 

 way it passes over many a league. 



u Kingfishers (says Mr. Gmelin) are seen all over Siberia; and their 

 feathers are employed by the Tartars and the Ostiacs for many super- 

 stitious uses. The former pluck them, cast them into water, and 

 carefully preserve such as float ; and they pretend, that if with one 

 of these feathers they touch a woman, or even her clothes, she must 

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

 claws, of this bird, and shut them in a purse; and, as long as they 

 preserve this sort of amulet, they believe that they have no ill to fear. 

 The person who taught me this means of living happy, could not for- 

 bear shedding tears ; he told me that the loss of a Kingfisher's skin 

 that he had, caused him to lose also his wife and his goods. I ob- 

 served, that such a bird could not be very rare, since a countryman 

 of his had brought me one, with its skin and feathers ; he was much 

 surprised, and said that if he had the luck to find one, he would give 

 it to no person." 



