168 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:4— April, 1920 



but the kingfisher's have only begun. See him gag and writhe as 

 he swallows his dinner, head first, and then regretting his haste, 

 bring it up again to try a wider avenue down his throat! But 

 why head first? Simply because the kingfisher being sensible, 

 chooses the most sensible method of swallowing the fish, so that the 

 fins will not prick his throat nor the scales rasp it. He swallows 

 the entire fish, trusting to the internal organs to select the nourish- 

 ing part. Somebody once shot a "king" that had tried to swallow 

 so large a fish that the tail was sticking out of his mouth, while its 

 head was safely stored below in the bird's stomach. After the 

 meat digests, the indigestible skin, bones, and scales of the fish are 

 gulped up in a ball without the least nausea. 



It is small wonder that the kingfisher supplements his fish diet 

 with various kinds of the largest insects, shrimps and fresh water 

 mollusks when we look on his evident distress with the fish food. 

 The many abortive efforts he makes to land his dinner safely below 

 in his stomach, his grim contortions as the fish bones scratch his 

 throat-lining on their way down and up again force more than one 

 smile from us. But let us not be prejudiced because it appears to 

 us as distress. This bird adapts himself to circumstances just as a 

 flicker will dig a home in a clay bank, a telegraph pole, or a church 

 steeple when the trees are all cut down. In the east, if opportunity 

 offers, he eats crustaceans, grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles of 

 the June bug family. Along some stream he lives mostly on frogs, 

 lizards, and beetles. In the Southern States, where the streams 

 are few and run dry in summer, our adaptible fishermen takes to a 

 fare of grasshoppers and mice. Think of a kingfisher catching 

 mice ! In Arizona, where rivers are also scarce and deserts plenty, 

 he lives mainly on beetles, grasshoppers and lizards. 



A certain part of a favorite lake or stream this- fisherman patrols 

 with a sense of ownership and rarely leaves it. Alone, but self- 

 satisfied, he clatters up and down his beat as a policeman, going his 

 rounds, might sound his rattle from time to time. Sometimes he 

 flies so low you can see his reflection in the water ; but again goes 

 high above, cleaving the air so swiftly that before you have had 

 time to rejoice at his loud, stirring rattle and made up your mind to 

 follow him, he has left you far behind. Mr. Burroughs says that 

 if you do ' ' follow the rattles ... he will show you the source 

 of every trout and salmon stream on the continent," adding that 

 he always fishes alone. In this statement we heartily concur, 



