34 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
instances are on record of young birds having been met with out of the nest in 
the month of March, but in our county, as also in Oxfordshire and Devonshire, 
we never met with an occupied nesting-place earlier than the beginning of May. 
We use the expression nesting-place advisedly, for we have never found in the 
holes tenanted by this species anything that could be correctly called a nest, 
though the eggs are often laid upon the indigestible portions of food cast up by 
the parent birds. The Kingfisher usually selects the steep bank of a river, brook, 
or pond in which to commence its boring operations, but we have now and then 
discovered the breeding-establishments of this species in gravel-pits at a consider- 
able distance from water: the tunnel generally slopes gently upwards to a distance 
of eighteen inches or two feet, and ends in a slight enlargement, in which the 
eggs are placed; these are from six to eight in number, of a pure glossy white, 
and nearly round. On leaving their nursery, the young birds perch on any 
neighbouring boughs, and keep up an incessant cry for food for the first few days, 
but soon learn to catch their prey for themselves. Many authors state that the 
Kingfisher hovers for a few seconds before making his plunge at his intended 
victim, but we have personally found this to be a somewhat exceptional habit, the 
bird usually darting directly from its perch.” (Birds of Northamptonshire, vol. 1, 
Pp. 255-6). 
My son, whilst boating on the Thames beyond Maidenhead, has watched the 
hovering habit of the Kingfisher with interest; he says that, seen against the 
light, the appearance of the bird when hovering was very curious, as its body was 
almost perpendicular, but with the bill pointing downwards: I do not remember 
to have seen the habit myself. 
The cry of the Kingfisher is a shrill scream, Seebohm likens it to the words 
peep and pip, but Howard Saunders renders it as ?rt, tet, fit. 
Speaking of this species as a cage-bird, Lord Lilford says:—‘t We have 
frequently reared young Kingfishers from the nest, and found that in a large cage 
with a plentiful supply of small live fishes they may be kept in good health for 
a considerable time, but although they may, as we say in falconry, be ‘trained 
off’ to feed upon worms and raw meat by placing this food in their water-pan, 
they never thrive long upon any other than a fish diet. In common with most 
piscivorous birds, the digestion of the Kingfisher is a very rapid process, and its 
appetite consequently voracious; this of course renders it very difficult to keep 
their place of confinement in good order, and though they become very tame and 
are interesting to watch, we consider that here, at least, where we have abundant 
opportunities of observing this bird in a state of nature, the keeping of Kingfishers 
costs more trouble than it is worth, and from their savage character amongst 
