60 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



few eager gulps, and then looks out for another victim. Some- 

 times it darts with lightning speed along the hank, and, with a 

 quick flash of the azure plumage, settles for a moment upon the 

 bank, looks cautiously round, and then pops swiftly into a little 

 hole. Into this hole we will follow the bird. She always chooses 

 her residence by the water side, and selects for nidification the 

 deserted hole of some quadrupedal burrower. I have even seen 

 a Kingfisher's nest made in the side of a tiny rivulet across 

 which a child could step, and which served to conduct the drain- 

 ings of an upper to a lower field. 



Generally, the nest is placed in the deserted burrow of a 

 water-vole, but in this instance it had been made in the empty 

 tunnel of a water-shrew, so that the hole was of comparatively 

 small dimensions, and would not admit my hand and arm with- 

 out some artificial enlargement. In aU cases, the bird takes care 

 to increase the size of the burrow at the spot where the nest is 

 made, and to choose a burrow that slopes upwards, so that how- 

 ever high the water may rise, the nest will be perfectly dry. 



That the eggs are laid upon dry fish-bones is a fact that has 

 long been known, but for an accurate account of the nest we are 

 indebted to Mr. Gould, the eminent ornithologist. 



Until he succeeded in removing the nest entire, no one had 

 been able to perform such a feat, and so well known to all 

 bird-nesters is the difficulty of the task, that a legend was, and 

 perhaps is still, current in various parts of England, that the 

 authorities of the British Museum had offered a reward of lOOZ. 

 to any one who would deposit in their collection a perfect nest 

 of the Kingfisher. This feat has been admirably accomplished 

 by Mr. Gould. 



Having discovered the retreat of a Kingfisher, and ascertained 

 by digging down upon the nest that the bird was laying, he replaced 

 the earth, and waited for three weeks before attempting any further 

 operations. The chief difficulty was, of course, to prevent the 

 earth from falling into the nest, and becoming mixed with the deli- 

 cate bones of which it was composed. In order to obviate such a 

 mishap, Mr. Gould introduced a quantity of cotton wool into the 

 burrow, pushing it to the extremity with a fishing-rod. He then 

 dug down upon the nest, and captured the female, who was sitting 

 upon eight eggs. With very great care he removed the fragile 

 nest, and transferred it to the British Museum, where it may be 



