262 THE BIRDS 
into their hole or nesting cavity for food. The poor bird 
is caught like a rat in a trap, and, unlike the kingfisher 
with his sharp beak, stands no chance of protecting itself, 
eggs, or young. It is needless to say that the cases that 
have come under my observation have found the snake 
well filled, and that I have taken pleasure in laying him 
out cold in more ways than one. Eggs, four to six in 
number, pink when with fresh contents, and pure white 
when blown. The nest, which is composed of dry pine 
needles, grass, small leaves and seaweed, lined with fine 
grasses and seaweed, is placed in a slight depression at 
the end of a burrow or hole in a bank, from two to five 
feet from entrance. I find the length of cavity depends 
much on the character of the soil in which it is started. 
Weather conditions also make a moist or hard soil for 
them to work in. Size of eggs, .75x.52. They raise but 
a single brood with us. The height of nesting cavity in 
the bank also varies greatly, the nature of the soil stratas 
affecting the drilling of the hole, which is made by the 
birds using their feet to scratch with, and push the dirt 
backward out of the tunnel. Unlike the kingfisher, their 
beaks play a secondary part in the drilling of their home, 
so they usually select a place in the soft strata where the 
roof will be the under side of a hard strata of soil, and so 
eliminate the chances of a cave-in. 
