OCCASIONAL NOTES. 179 
in length (sometimes less than a yard) and slopes upwards, probably for 
drainage. They generally select the banks of rivers or brooks. Small 
streams communicating either with ponds or rivers are very favourite 
places, and from the secluded haunts of which they sally out to fish. It is 
immaterial whether there are fish in the brook, so long as they can procure 
them in the neighbourhood. ‘The nearest hole to the water I ever found 
them nesting in was one in the banks of the River Trent, only about three 
feet above the water. They generally prefer from five to twenty feet above 
it, and are fond of a bank overhanging it, and with trees about; this 
probably leaves the hole less open to observation, and accords more with 
their secluded habits. I once found a nest (so-called) in a gravel-pit a 
quarter of a mile from water, but asa rule they do not leave the banks 
bordering on that element. It is easy to anyone familiar with the habits 
and breeding-places of these beautiful birds to find their eggs. You may 
generally see by the droppings where the birds most frequently sit, and as 
this is generally near the hole selected, look about, and on discovering a 
hole take a little of the earth from the bottom of it in your fingers, and 
smell it. If they use it the strong smell of fish will soon make you aware 
of the fact, and you will probably see some bones with it. On getting your 
arm up, which you will probably fail to do without enlarging the entrance, 
you will discover more bones, and at the end you may find six or seven eggs, 
which before being blown look like pearls, from the yelk showing through 
the glossy and pure white shell. The eggs are almost round in form. Nest 
there is uone; this I have long been quite sure about, and I remember 
once opening up a hole near the top of a bank till I got to the eggs, which 
are always placed on a mass of small bones which the bird has disgorged in 
a small depression scooped out for the purpose. Those naturalists who 
speak of their constructing a nest of intertwining bones together are quite 
mistaken. The bird may frequently be caught when sitting, and I have 
sometimes been startled by her sudden exit while preparing to insert my 
arm. ‘They are very shy and‘ wary on the approach of danger, leaving the 
nest very quietly, and only uttering their shrill loud pipe on getting some 
distance away. They breed twice in the season, I think, for I have found 
their eggs in July. They fly very quickly, generally keeping near the water. 
I have seen them a mile away from where I knew their nests to be, and 
occasionally in meadows some distance from streams or ponds. Severe 
winters kill them. I never found more than one pair inhabiting the same 
brook. In this respect they seem very solitary. You may see them with 
their young ones flying one after the other along a stream, or seated on 
a rail or tree feeding them; but as soon as the young birds can take care 
of themselves they separate. Kingfishers catch their prey by watching from 
a tree or rail and darting with great rapidity into the water, or by hovering 
like a Kestrcl and then darting down, but generally by the former method. 
