CHAPTER VI 



THE KINGFISHER 



IN some of the older writings on natural 

 history the kingfisher is described as a bird 

 that builds a nest, consisting of fishbones, in the 

 hole of a skater-rat, .which is enlarged and altered 

 to the liking of the bird. Some more modern 

 writers state that the kingfisher uses the nesting- 

 hole of a sand-martin. 



I have seen a great many burrows, at the 

 end of which kingfishers have reared their young, 

 but I have never in a single instance met a case 

 in which the bird had used the hole of a water- 

 rat or the disused excavation of a sand-martin ! 



Kingfishers pair in April, and are frequently 

 known to return to a hole in which they have 

 nested before. On the Chantry Pond, near 

 Ipswich, a pair successfully reared three con- 

 secutive broods in the same hole. 



When a new burrow is to be made, the bird 



often begins at a point where a stone has fallen 



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