132 ANIMAL LIFE UNDER WATER 



The eggs are usually laid at the end of the 

 completed burrow within thirty days. Should 

 the first nest be destroyed, the birds will work 

 much faster at a second, and complete it in far 

 less time, and all is ready for the commencement 

 of incubation, within seventeen to twenty-one 

 days. 



Naturalists appear to differ in their opinions 

 as to whether a kingfisher deliberately uses fish 

 bones to form a nest or whether the presence of 

 fish bones at the end of a burrow is purely 

 "accidental, and that they are merely from the 

 pellets thrown up by the nesting bird. 



Personally, I think the latter is the more 

 probable explanation of their presence. Mr. 

 Ridley, a Lancashire naturalist, has, however, 

 described how, on one occasion, pellets were left 

 along the ridges on a sandbank where kingfishers 

 were digging. After a time these pellets dis- 

 appeared, and when he examined the nest he 

 found two eggs, with large quantities of fish- 

 bone pellets — far more than it was possible for 

 the birds to have thrown up during the short 

 time that they had occupied the nest. Mr. 

 Ridley was of the opinion that these birds, 

 before laying their eggs, had carried the pellets 



