Parasites, Diseases and Enemies. 2^7 



Struck at it and knocked the bait on top of a lily pad. 

 A passing kingfisher saw it, stopped, hovered and dove. 

 The bird struck the water hard just as the minnow 

 floundered into it, and bore the fish some feet in the 

 air until it learned that its prey was fast to something, 

 when the bird dropped the fish and aHghted on a dead 

 limb and scolded away. In fact it always scolds when 

 it misses, and I have been in doubt whether it can 

 spring its rattle with a fish in its bill. By the marks on 

 this minnow the long bill of the bird did not pierce it, 

 but it struck the fish about the middle, leaving a mark 

 on each side. 



The kingfisher sizes up its prey and does not take a 

 fish which it cannot swallow whole. It takes the fish 

 head first, after it has seized it crosswise and gone to a 

 limb to swallow it. This I have learned by dissection, 

 for as a fishculturist I was forced to protect my trout 

 fry from a bird which has always been a welcome com- 

 panion on angling trips. 



The kingfishers nest in holes in the bank, usually 

 under the protecting roots of trees, and the young seem 

 to be able to reject fish bones, or to pass them undi- 

 gested, I don't know which. Nor do I know how the 

 young are fed, whether as pigeons are fed, or whether 

 the old takes a fish to the nest and picks it to pieces for 

 the fledglings. In fact, there are many things which 

 we may never know of the life history of wild birds, 

 because we cannot be allowed to intrude upon their 

 privacy. 



The Osprey. — This is a large bird of the great fam- 

 ily of falcons, which includes the eagles, hawks and 

 kites. Osprey is the correct name of the bird, which is 

 called "fish-hawk" in many parts of our country, and 

 not without reason. It ranges almost over the world, 



