376 THE KINGFISHER. 



satisfied that this pair of birds, at least, lives entirely upon fish ; I have 

 never been able to detect these kingfishers feeding either upon snails, 

 or worms, or insects. They bring up a fish from the water, crosswise 

 in their bills, and then chuck it down their throats head-foremost. I 

 do not think that they ever eat a fish piecemeal : and these birds, 

 with me, never utter their ordinary shrill piping succession of notes, 

 except when they are on the wing. 



I love to take my stand behind a large tree, and watch the king- 

 fisher as he hovers over the water, and at last plunges into it, with a 

 velocity like that of an arrow from a bow. How we are lost in as- 

 tonishment when we reflect that instinct forces this little bird to seek 

 its sustenance underneath the water ; and that it can emerge from it 

 in perfect safety, though it possesses none of the faculties (save that 

 of plunging) which have been so liberally granted to most other 

 birds which frequent the deep ! I sometimes fancy that it is all over 

 with it, when I see it plunge into a pond, which I know to be well 

 stocked with ravenous pike : still it invariably returns uninjured, and 

 prepares to take another dip. 



There are people who imagine that the brilliancy of the plumage 

 of birds has some connection with a tropical sun. Here, however, 

 in our own native bird, we have an instance that the glowing sun of 

 the tropics is not required to produce a splendid plumage. The 

 hottest parts of Asia and of Africa do not present us with an azure 

 more rich and lovely than that which adorns the back of this charm- 

 ing little bird ; while throughout the whole of America, from Hud- 

 son's Bay to Tierra del Fuego, there has not been discovered a 

 kingfisher with colours half so rich or beautiful. Asia, Africa, and 

 America offer to the naturalist a vast abundance of different species 

 of the kingfisher. Europe presents only one, but that one is like a 

 gem of the finest lustre. 



I feel sorry to add that our kingfisher is becoming scarcer every 

 year in this part of Yorkshire. The proprietors of museums are 

 always anxious to add it to their collections, and offer a tempting 

 price for it. On the canals, too, it undergoes a continual persecu- 

 tion : not a waterman steers his boat along them but who has his 

 gun ready to procure the kingfisher. If I may judge from the dis- 

 appearance of the kite, the raven, and the buzzard from this part of 



