AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 

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X WITH THE KINGFISHERS. X 



By R. H. Beebe. \\ 



On June seventeenth last, while out on a photographing trip, I dis- 

 covered the entrance to a Kingfisher's home. It was situated in a 

 gravel bank a few rods back from a creek. Having noticed for some 

 time previous, a pair of Kingfishers in this vicinity, I at once concluded 

 that undoubtedly the nest contained young birds. 



The entrance to the nest being very near the top of the bank it was an 

 easy matter to dig back to the young, simply by making a trench in the 

 top of the bank. I found the six young Kingfishers after I had dug 

 back about four feet from the entrance; they were about two feet far- 

 ther back but in easy reach so it was unnecessary to dig the entire 

 distance. They were taken out and placed in a row on the bank where 

 the photograph which shows them with their feathers just starting, was 

 made. They were then placed back in their under-ground home, and a 

 board procured which would just cover the top of the trench I had dug, 

 and then by placing some stones and gravel on top of it, I made them 

 fully as secure as they were before they had been disturbed; still it 

 was an easy matter for me to get to them at any time that I wished 

 afterwards. 



The creek in this vicinity being quite shallow and very plentifully 

 stocked with mullets, made a fine fishing ground for the old birds, 

 and later for the young when they became agile enough to try their 

 hand at it. 



In each of three different photos that I was able to secure of the 

 adult birds, in each instance it had a mullet in it's bill, so undoubtedly 

 this variety of fish were their staple article of diet. 



In obtaining the photos of the old birds, I first made a blind out of 

 sticks, stones, and grass, just large enough to conceal the camera. I 

 also placed a dead branch in the side of the bank and about five feet 

 from the blind. This formed a perch for the old birds to alight upon 

 before entering the nest. The next day, June twentieth, I placed the 

 camera in the blind and after focusing on the branch and concealing the 

 camera as much as possible with grass I attached a thread to the shut- 

 ter and ran it back for about three hundred feet to a clump of bushes 

 where I could conceal myself. After waiting about an hour one of the 

 old birds returned and I made the exposure which shows him with the 



