284 THE BEE-EATER. 
out some freshly-cast bones of fish, convincing me that I was right in my 
surmise. On a subsequent day, the 9th of May, I again visited the spot 
with a spade, and after moving nearly two feet square of the turf, dug down 
to the nest without disturbing the entrance hule or the passage which led 10 
it. Here I found four eggs placed on the usual layers of fish-bones ; all of 
these I removed with care, and then filled up the hole, beating the earth 
down as hard as the bank itself, and replacing the sod on the top in order 
that barge-horses passing to and fro might not put a foot in the hole, A 
fortnight afterwards the bird was seen to leave the hole again, and my sus- 
picion was awakened that she had taken to her old breeding-quarters a 
second time. 
“The first opportunity I had of again visiting this place, which was exactly 
twenty-one days from the date of my former exploration and taking the eggs, 
I again passed the top of my fly-rod up the hole, and found not only that the 
hole was of the former length, but that the female was within. I then toak 
a large mass of cotton-wool from my collecting-box, and stuffed it to the 
extremity of the hole, in order to preserve the eggs and nest from damage 
during my again laying it open from above. On removing the sod and 
digging down as before, I came upon the cotton-wool, and beneath it a well- 
formed nest of fish-bones, the size of a small saucer, the walls of which were 
fully half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful eggs and the old female 
herself. This nest and eggs I removed with the greatest care. and I now 
have the pleasure of exhibiting it to the Society, before its transmission to 
the British Museum, the proper resting-place of so interesting a bird’s nest. 
This mass of bones then, weighing 700 grains, had heen cast up and 
deposited by the bird, or the bird and its mate, besides the unusual number 
of eight eggs, in the short space of twenty-one days. 
“To gain anything like an approximate idea of the number of fish that 
had been taken to form this mass, the skeleton of a minnow, their usual 
food, must be carefully made and weighed, and this I may probably do upon 
some future occasion. I think we may now conclude, from what I have 
adduced, that the bird purposely deposits these bones as a nest; and 
nothing can be better adapted, as a platform, to defend the eggs from the 
damp earth.” 
The voice of the Kingfisher is a peculiarly shrill and piping cry, that can 
be heard at some distance, and is not easily mistaken for any other sound. 
The colour of this bird is very gorgeous, and rather complicated in its 
arrangement. The top of the head and back of the neck are dark green, 
flecked with many spots of verditer blue upon the tips of the feathers. The 
upper part of the back is also dark green, and the lower part is light violet 
or blue, gleaming vividly under a strong light, and being very conspicuous 
as the bird is on the wing. The tail is deep indigo, and the quill feathers of 
the wing are dark blackish green, lightened by a brighter hue of green on 
the outer webs, and set off by the verditer blue spots of the tertiaries. A 
white patch or streak passes from the eye to the back of the neck, and a 
dark green streak is drawn immediately under the white patch. The throat 
and chin are yellowish white, and the whole of the under surface is chestnut. 
The eyes are crimson, and the bill is black, with the exception of the orange- 
tinted base of the lower mandible. The total length of the bird is about 
seven inches. 
BEE-EATERS. 
THE BEE-EATERS may at once te distinguished by the shape of the bill, 
which is curved, and by the formation of the wings, which are long and 
