246 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



cases beautifully grained. They are not so large as a 

 Thrush's egg, and much more rounded, and usually six 

 in number. 



The Kingfisher is found with us throughout the 

 year, but numbers doubtless perish when their native 

 streams are frozen. There is perhaps not a bird in all 

 the ranks of the feathered gems of equatorial regions, be 

 it ever so fair, the Humming Birds excepted, that can 

 boaist a garb so lovely— an azure blue, green, and inter- 

 mediate tints — as adorns this little creature of our own 

 northern land. Naturalists assert that the sun has some- 

 thing to do with the brilliant colours of the birds and 

 insects of the tropics, but certainly the Kingfisher is an 

 exception of the highest kind. 



