KINGFISHER. 



279 



This bird is found most frequently about clear running- streams and 

 rivers, in the banks of which it generally takes possession of a rat's 

 hole to deposit its eggs. The many curious accounts which have been 

 given of the nest of this bird, induced us to take some pains to discover 

 the fact. The result of our researches are, that the hole chosen to 

 breed in is always ascending, and generally two or three feet in the 

 bank; at the end is scooped a hollow, at the bottom of which is a 

 quantity of small fish-bones, nearly half an inch thick, mixed in with 

 the earth. This is undoubtedly the castings of the parent birds, and 

 not the young, for we have found it even before they have eggs, and 

 have every reason to believe- both male and female go to that spot, for 

 no other purpose than to eject this matter, for some time before the 

 female begins to lay, and that they dry it by the heat of their bodies, 

 as they are frequently known to continue in the hole for hours long- 

 before they have eggs. On this disgorged matter the female lays to 

 the number of seven eggs, which are perfectly white and transparent, 

 of a short oval form, weighing about one dram. The hole in which 

 they breed is by no means fouled by the castings ; but before the young 

 are able to fly, it becomes extremely fetid by the feces of the brood, 

 which is of a watery nature, and cannot be carried away by the parent 

 birds, as is common with most of the smaller species. In defect of which, 

 instinct has taught them to have the entrance to their habitation 

 ascending, by which means the filthy matter runs off, and may fre- 

 quently be seen on the outside. We never could observe the old birds 

 with any thing in their bills when they went in to feed their young ; 

 from which it may be concluded they eject from their stomach for that 

 purpose. 



*From the high authority of Montagu, the preceding description has 

 been copied by every recent writer, with the exception of Temminck, 

 who says nothing on the subject, and Wilson, who says of his belted 

 Kingfisher {Alcedo alcyon) that " its nest is neither constructed of 

 glue nor fish bones." 1 We are certain of the fact that this will apply 

 equally to our own Kingfisher. In the bank of a stream, at Lee in 

 Kent, we have been acquainted with one of these nests in the same 

 hole for several successive summers, but so far from the exuviae of 

 fish bones ejected, as is done by all birds of prey, being dried on pur- 

 pose to form the nest, they are scattered about the floor of the hole 

 in all directions, from its entrance to its termination, without the least 

 order or working up with the earth, and all moist and fetid. That 



Wilson's Am. Orn. iii. 60. 



