THE KINGFISHERS. 51 



culty in getting close enough to have a good view, especially 

 if the pocket carries a handy little binocular. The king- 

 fisher is very willing to be friendly. The Chinese catch him 

 for the sake of certain feathers with which they adorn some 

 of their most lovely jewellery, but they have the conscience 

 to let him go again after their rape of the painted plumes. 

 So there he sits. If possible, you should take up such a 

 position as will command the surface of the water he is watch- 

 ing. Then patience is usually rewarded by the sight of a 

 dive, quite out of sight under the water, and an emergence 

 with a little fish wriggling transversely in the beak. The 

 finny prey, if small, is usually turned into position without 

 more ado, and disappears head first into its living tomb. Some- 

 times a whack or two on the branch are the preliminaries. 

 Some observers declare that the kingfisher "not unfrequently" 

 misses his aim. This may be so where water is running 

 rapidly, but my experience on Chinese creeks is different. I 

 havenever yet seen a miss, though I have seen many successes. 



But the most delightful of all ways of watching the 

 kingfisher is to get into a small punt or canoe which you 

 manage alone. Paddle along the creeks in the neighbourhood 

 of the Hills for instance, and as a setting for your bird studies 

 there will be found enough natural beauty to saturate the 

 most receptive worshipper. You may then sit within a few 

 feet of the little fisherman whom the French admire under 

 the name Martin-pecheur. You may scan over all the chro- 

 matic notes in his lovely livery: the greenish blue of his little 

 crown, with its border of dusky black: the brilliant back which 

 makes of him a streak of cobalt blue as he darts through the 

 air; the bit of rufous orange near the eye and ear; the light- 

 blue cheeks barred with black; and when he hops round as 

 he will do at times, the buff-white throat with a patch of 

 blue-green on the upper breast, and all the rest of the under 

 surface a rich reddish-orange. You must see all this in life, 

 and at close quarters, if you wish to drink to the full the 

 beauty of almost miraculous admixture of cerulean aqua- 

 marine erubescence. 



You may go to the R. A. S. Museum. There are kingfishers 

 there, a fairly wide collection. But do not hope for the full 

 radiance I have just described. If you do, disappointment 

 is certain and, what affects me more, very probable doubt of 

 my veracity. Kingfishers, in common with most, probably 

 all, birds, lose their radiance very soon after life is gone an 

 excellent reason for not killing them unless with strong 

 reason. But a visit to the Museum will at least do some- 

 thing to open the eyes of the bird-lover to the varieties of king- 

 fishers found in China. There is a very faded specimen of the 

 ruddy kingfisher, from Shaweishan. He is about the size 



