THE OOLOGIST 



151 



stands like a fire stripped forest in 

 the widening waters. Our trip from 

 now on required more muscle at the 

 upper end of the paddle until we 

 reached the dam and when in the 

 largest open body of water, we had a 

 head on wind to buck which is almost 

 disasterous to canoeing. In these 

 more quiet waters we startled a pair 

 of GreatBlue Heron at almost every 

 other bend until at last they circled 

 about and flew back of us up stream. 

 We kept our eye pealed for their nest 

 among the larger trees but were not 

 fortunate in finding it. We discovered 

 other inaccessible hawks' nests. With- 

 out the use of climbers at least which 

 we did not have. We took dinner at 

 exactly noon at the big dam. 



After portaging about the dam and 

 using our last film in a snap shot, of 

 its falling waters, we began the last 

 stretch of our trip. Shortly we came 

 upon the discovery and event of the 

 day. We saw a kingfisher with a 

 small fish in his bill dart hurriedly 

 into his hole in a low bank not more 

 than ten feet up and but a foot and a 

 half from the top. We have tried 

 many times to find an inhabited king- 

 fisher hole but this was our first ex- 

 perience and it was an interesting one. 

 We crawled cautiously up and thrust 

 a cap over the hole in hopes to catch 

 Mr. Kingfisher for we figured he was 

 taking Mrs. Kingfisher her dinner. He 

 made no attempt to come out. Bud 

 ran to the near by farm house for a 

 shovel while I stood guard at the 

 hole. Upon second thought I thought 

 it best not to try to catch the bird 

 for fear the eggs would be broken in 

 his fright. So I removed the cap but 

 Mr. Kingfisher did not come out. We 

 began digging and still no appearance 

 of the bird. When in about a foot or 

 so, Bud ran his arm in but he drew 

 it out faster than he put it in with a 

 cry of pain. The bird drew blood. 



This brought Mr. Kingfisher to light 

 and away he flew across the stream. 

 We kept on digging carefully lest we 

 should break the eggs. When in 

 about two and a half feet Bud thrust 

 his arm in again to see if he could 

 reach the eggs and a second surprise 

 brought forth another yell. Suffice it 

 to say, he didn't try again. This told 

 us that Mrs. Kingfisher in real Bel- 

 gium style was still withstanding the 

 onslaught of the approaching Huns. 

 We kept on digging and when in three 

 and a half feet the mother bird could 

 get a full view of us and made a 

 hasty flight across the river. There 

 in full view was the nest the pair 

 were so nobly defending, a nest of 

 which we had ofttimes read but had 

 never seen. The end of the hole was 

 enlarged to about seven inches across 

 while the hole was four inches in 

 diameter. The sandy clay floor was 

 strewn with fish bones, most of them 

 old ones proving the hole to have 

 been inhabited before. On this rather 

 harsh bed wabbled back and forth 

 with heads up and mouth open, five 

 young Kingfishers perfectly nude 

 without the sign of down to protect 

 their tender skin which was as white 

 as a babys. Their big eyes were still 

 shut for what use had they for eyes 

 in such a home. There too, lay the 

 dinner which their father had carried 

 to them as we had seen him enter 

 the hole, a small minnow about two 

 and one-half inches long. Our last 

 film had been exposed in taking a 

 snap shot of the dam so we were un- 

 able to photograph the nest. The 

 sky was rapidly becoming over-cast 

 with storm clouds and we had to 

 hurry. We laid boards over the 

 trench which we had dug, a perfect- 

 ly straight one, covered the boards 

 with earth and hurried on to complete 

 our journey which took the remain- 

 ing time until 2:40 p. m. The actual 



