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will plunge several times in succession into the water without attempting to capture any thing, 

 doubtless to wash itself. When it has captured a fish it takes it to its perch, kills it with a few 

 smart raps, and immediately swallows it head first. 



It breeds rather early, having eggs as early as April, and, as a rule, rearing but one brood 

 in the season. The nest is excavated in a bank, either overhanging the water or, not unfrequently, 

 at a considerable distance from any water. It usually selects a clay soil in preference to gravel, 

 doubtless because the latter is not so easy to excavate ; for it almost always tunnels its own nest- 

 hole, seldom taking possession of one already made, though when it has once successfully reared 

 a brood in a place it returns again most pertinaciously, and is not easily driven away. The hole 

 is round externally, resembling that of a rat, and ascends somewhat, doubtless to carry off the 

 moisture. It is usually bored in the face of a perpendicular bank, and is about two feet deep ; 

 at the end it is enlarged into an oval chamber in which the eggs are deposited on a collection of 

 fish-bones and castings. Mr. G. Dawson Rowley describes a nest found by him near Brighton, 

 in April 1866, as follows: — "By measurement, the entrance was 12 inches from the surface of 

 the ground, and about 5 feet from the water. The length of the ascending gallery was 8 J inches, 

 and the oval chamber 6 inches in diameter more. The top of the chamber was 9 inches from 

 the surface of the ground. It contained the usual nest of fish-bones, which was 1J inch deep ;" 

 and Mr. Gould describes a nest taken by him as formed of fish-bones, on which the eggs were 

 placed. " This mass of bones," he writes, " weighing 700 grains, had been cast up and deposited 

 by the bird and its mate in the short space of twenty-one days. Ornithologists are divided in 

 opinion as to whether the fish-bones are to be considered in the light of a nest. Some are 

 disposed to believe them to be the castings and fgeces of the young brood of the year, and that, 

 the same hole being frequented for a succession of years, a great mass is at length formed ; while 

 others suppose that they are deposited by the parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting in 

 fact a nest : and I think, from what I have adduced, we may fairly conclude this is the case ; 

 in fact, nothing could be better adapted to defend the eggs from the damp earth." 



Some interesting notes on the nidification of the Kingfisher were published by Dr. Kiitter 

 (J. f. O. 1866, p. 38), which I translated for my late colleague's (Mr. E. B. Sharpe) ' Monograph 

 of the Kingfishers,' from which work I again transcribe them as follows: — "The usual breeding- 

 time I have found to be April, May, and June. Generally they have but one brood in the year ; 

 but if any thing happens to the first the female not rarely has another ; and it is such a brood 

 that one finds in July or August. This I determined by marking the bills of three females 

 with a file, and afterwards catching them on the nest. The position of the nest-hole I have 

 found in a straight bank, which is not necessarily washed by the water. I have as an exception 

 found it in a bank. about twenty paces from water, and divided from it by a well-frequented 

 path. The circular hole, about 2 or 3 inches in diameter, in low banks is just under the edge, 

 and in high banks about the middle or below that. It narrows slightly, and rises gradually, or 

 runs quite horizontal, and is tunneled 1^ foot to as much as 3^ feet into the bank. I have 

 sometimes known them to turn off to one side, but in such cases have invariably found roots or 

 stones to be the obstacle to its continuation in a direct line. The well-known grooved marks on 

 each side of the base are more or less distinctly worked out in the neighbourhood of the outlet, 

 or in much-used holes are quite effaced. The oven-like or lentile-shaped chamber at the end is 



3 m 



