78 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
be seen, the minnow must be sought for; it is 
not apparent to the sightless seer. When once 
caught, however, it is not difficult to keep in 
view, for the tiny green-brown things are ever 
active, and the even tenor of their movements 
is only at intervals broken by throwing up their 
silvery bellies and displaying their bright colours 
to the sun. As soon as the minnows eye an 
intruder, they move off a foot from the shore, 
flicking their tiny dorsal fins the while, and 
causing quite a minnow-commotion. When quiet 
is restored, they are quick to return, and to watch 
them you climb into an overhanging alder bough. 
As luck would have it, you have chosen well 
your time, and are treated to quite a charming and 
unexpected sight; for another shoal of minnows 
has attracted one of the presiding spirits of the 
stream. Over there is a stunted, leafless bough, 
and a kingfisher has just alighted upon it. At 
first his form is motionless ; soon it assumes more 
animation; now is all eye and ear. Then it 
darts, hangs for a moment in the air like a kestrel, 
and returns to its perch. Again it darts with 
unerring aim and secures something. This is 
tossed, beaten, and brolzen with a formidable 
beak, and then swallowed head foremost, The 
process is again and again repeated, and you find 
that the prey is small fish. From watching an 
