120 



8 



evenly domed, generally 6 inches wide and 4 inches high ; and the bird only begins to furnish it 

 with discarded bones and scales of fish (which it has eaten) after commencing to lay the eggs. 

 Newly finished chambers without eggs never have a trace of this peculiar nesting-material, 

 which during the time of laying the eggs and sitting gradually increases in size, and accumulates 

 so that at last it forms a foundation evenly arranged, several lines high. When incubation has 

 commenced, one never finds an egg on the bare earth ; and indeed the eggs require, from their 

 number and size, as do also the naked young, in addition to the warmth of the mother, some 

 protection from the bad conductor of warmth in the shape of the chilly earth ; so that it is to 

 me perfectly incomprehensible how people can speak of a chance collection of these remains in 

 the nesting-chamber. Moreover these remains have the same physical properties and serve 

 exactly the same end as a foundation of dry grass, straw, &c, which birds habitually frequenting 

 the water can less easily make use of. I should add that the digging of the hole, which 

 seems so great an undertaking for so small a bird, is completed in a comparatively short time ; 

 and I can show that the space of scarcely a week suffices in some instances. In the eager 

 picking and digging, often in hard sand rubble, the beak is much used: and the bird appears 

 from choice to work with the upper mandible only ; for I have often found it shortened one or 

 two lines, and in one instance one third of the length was wanting, having, as it seems, been 

 broken off. I never found them in colonies; and when several holes are close together, only 

 one is inhabited. The shortest distance between inhabited holes was about fifty paces. I have, 

 without exception, found seven to constitute the full complement of eggs, even in a second brood. 

 I have been unable to prove or disprove that fifteen or sixteen days, as stated, is the period of 

 incubation." 



Respecting the use of the upper mandible in digging, Dr. Kiitter adds the following foot- 

 note: — "This is easily to be understood on anatomical grounds, inasmuch as the upper mandible 

 is fixed fast to the skull, whereas the weaker under mandible, being attached to the skull only 

 by joints and sinews, can less easily withstand the hard work of digging. It is probable that on 

 these grounds the Woodpeckers work, in excavating their holes, with the upper mandible and 

 not with closed bill; but I cannot state this from my own observation." 



When the nest-hole has been tenanted some time, it may easily be ascertained if the hole is 

 occupied by applying the nose to the entrance ; for the musty fish-like odour is easily discernible : 

 but when the young are hatched, their presence in the hole may readily be detected by the cries 

 they emit ; for they are very noisy. When able to fly, they sit in secluded spots in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the nest, and are very clamorous for food. The old birds evince great solicitude for 

 their offspring, and, when an intruder is seen in the neighbourhood of their young, may be 

 observed flying restlessly from point to point with the food in the bill intended for the little 

 Kingfishers, who, unsuspecting danger, answer the anxious cry of the parent bird from the 

 depths of the shady retreat where they are awaiting its return. I may name that, when only 

 just able to fly, the note of the young exactly resembles the cry of the adult bird, but is of 

 course not so powerful. 



The eggs of the present species vary in number from five to seven, and are roundish oval in 

 shape, some being rounder than others, and in colour, when blown, pure white ; but when the 

 yelk js still in the egg it imparts a warm pinkish tinge to it. The surface of the shell is very 



