UNREST AND REST 



149 



pair of kingfishers were hard at work on the opposite 

 bank in a situation very similar to the one which I 

 had chosen ; and a fine handsome pair of birds they 

 were, with their steely-blue backs and their pina- 

 fores of dusky red, showing a white frock under- 

 neath at the throat. I admired their costume far 

 more than their views as to what was comfortable 

 material. Never once did I see them take what I 

 should call comfortable stuff for bedding ; but a 

 drowned cat had come to its last anchorage some- 

 where under their bank — many weeks before my 

 arrival, I should say — and they were busy every 

 day over its remains, fussing about backwards and 

 forwards between it and their hole. It was a great 

 deal too far gone to be of any use to me when I 

 went to inspect it, and I could not think how they 

 contrived to find anything to eat on it. So one day 

 I asked them what on earth they were getting oft 

 it. ' Nothing on earth,' they replied, ' but plenty 

 on water.' 1 implored them not to be so witty, and 

 eventually made out from their very erratic con- 

 versation that they made the greater part of their 

 nest out of the fish-bones which they themselves 

 disgorged, but that the smaller bones, which they 

 extracted out of what had once been pussy-cat, 

 made an excellent foundation. 



