VOL. XI. ] NOTES ON THE KINGFISHER.? 225 
once more, and apparently settled, as for some minutes 
she was lost to view, finally coming back to my perch: 
Here she sat for five minutes while I sketched her. I then 
got out and stood up on the bank to reset the shutter. 
Still she sat there only a few yards off, bobbing her head 
at me for quite an appreciable time before departing 
precipitately up the stream. She still had the fish, which 
she retained throughout. This looked to me like a minnow 
when the bird settled beside my tent. The head end was held 
in the beak, the tail end hanging straight out. 
It was nearly three-quarters of an hour before she returned 
again, this time flying straight to the nest, where she 
disappeared for a minute or two and then settled on my 
perch. After one or two more tries at getting in she gave 
it up in disgust, flew past me, and settled on a projecting 
root about ten yards higher up. There she sat, pensive 
and perturbed, for some minutes, and then flew to my willow 
for a moment, and then back to the nest. Again she 
disappeared for some time before settling once more on my 
perch. I then showed myself, and she flew back up stream. 
Again she held a fish all the time. I wondered what she 
had been doing at the hole, and examined this. The twig 
had apparently been pulled partially out. As far as I could 
see, she hung on to the bank below the hole and tugged at 
the impediment, while all the time holding the fish in her beak. 
By this time the shadow of a barn was on my perch, so I 
removed the obstacle and packed up the camera. When 
the bird eventually returned, she settled straight on the perch, 
apparently still puzzling out the problem. I could hear 
the churring of the young quite distinctly at my tent, nine 
yards away, as the old bird made her way in. 
' The whole afternoon the bird from down stream never put 
in an appearance. It may be that for once the pair were 
fishing on the same stretch in company, but I never saw 
them together. 
