28 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiii. 



locality. I found that when the young were partly feathered 

 they frequently moved away from the " nest " on being 

 disturbed and hid in the marram grass, but invariably returned 

 to it. It was curious to see some nesting Terns — Common 

 and Lesser — mobbing the female Nightjar when she took 

 flight on being put off her young. S. G. Cummings. 



FIELD-NOTES ON NESTING KINGFISHERS. 



Referring to " Notes on the Kingfisher," by W. Rowan 

 {antea, Vol. XL, p. 218) and "Field Notes on the Kingfisher," by 

 Helen M. Rait Kerr {antea. Vol. XII., p. 36), I watched a pair of 

 Kingfishers which nested in the same hole in the sandy bank 

 of a Cheshire stream in April 1914 and May 1916. The hole 

 was about five feet up, and the birds always perched on a root 

 hanging down from the top of the bank before entering the 

 nest. In both years when I first began to watch they were 

 evidently feeding young. I noticed that the fish was always 

 held crosswise in the beak when the birds flew up, but after 

 they had perched on the root they shifted the morsel in their 

 beaks until they had fixed it lengthwise, and then flew with it 

 to the hole. If the fish was a large one the shifting operation 

 seemed to cause them considerable difficulty. 



Mr. Pycraft, in The British Bird Book (Vol. II., p. 456), 

 quotes the late Mr. Bosworth Smith as stating that the young 

 are fed by regurgitated food. Once while I was watching, a 

 bird flew to the perch and remained there stationary for five 

 minutes ; it seemed uneasy, moving its head from side to 

 side and making a swallowing motion. Eventually it vomited 

 what seemed to be a piece of fish. Of course it may have been 

 a very tough fish ; on the other hand, being reluctant to enter 

 the hole owing to my presence, the bird may have regurgitated 

 prematurely. But while I watched I never saw the birds 

 enter the hole without fish in their beaks. 



In 1914 I watched the Kingfishers going to the nesting-hole 

 -on the 19th and 20th April. I did not visit them again till 

 the 25th, when I noticed them flying to the old hole, and also 

 to a new hole a few feet from the old one. On examining 

 the new hole I found that it was only a few inches deep and 

 recently excavated ; there was fresh sand beneath it. My 

 next visit was on 2nd May, when the birds visited the old 

 hole only ; there was no sand beneath the other hole, and it 

 had apparently been abandoned. 



I twice saw a bird dive from a branch not ten yards from 

 my " hide " (which consisted of a brown mackintosh flung 



