328 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



wildfowlers would confirm from their own experience 

 the observations made in America. 



It remains to notice another and different kind 

 of lure employed by our own Kingfisher, as I have 

 frequently observed, but of which I have never seen 

 any mention in books. Lying on the grass by the 

 side of a Thames backwater, I have watched a King- 

 fisher, fiying down stream at full speed, suddenly 

 " fling up," and remain hovering like a Kestrel with 

 rapidly moving wings. As the bird in that position 

 was facing me, I could see only the orange-coloured 

 breast and the under surfaces of the wings, which 

 are also orange. In this position the bird presented 

 the appearance of a quivering flame or cresset. It 

 remained thus hovering for, perhaps, five or six 

 seconds, and then dropped like a stone into the 

 water, recovered a fish, and flew down stream with 

 it, to perch on some post or rail, on which it would 

 rap the fish three or four times smartly, as if to stun 

 it, and then swallow it whole. Never till then did 

 I appreciate the significance of the Kingfisher's 

 orange breast and the orange lining to the wings. 

 It might be fancy, but it seemed to me as if the 

 bird, on spying a shoal of small fish, showed his 

 light, and as soon as a fish drew towards him it was 

 struck like lightning and carried off. This is not 

 the invariable mode of fishing adopted by the King- 

 fisher ; it will frequently sit motionless on a rail or 

 bough overhanging the water, waiting for a chance 

 to descend on an approaching fish towards which 

 its orange breast is directed. 



Another fishing bird, which takes its prey by 



