COMMON KINGFISHER. 91 



of the river or stream it frequents, for it makes no 

 nest, and adds, that the remains of the fish on 

 which it feeds do by no means soil the habitation, 

 as it brings up the indigestible parts in pellets, 

 like birds of prey. 



In Mr. Bewick's elegant publication on British 

 birds, mention is made of a Kingfisher's nest, 

 which, in the compactness of its form, resembled 

 that of a chaffinch : it was made entirely of small 

 fish-bones, cemented together with a brown gluti- 

 nous substance. In a succeeding paragraph, how- 

 ever, an account is given of a boy's having found 

 the eggs of a Kingfisher deposited on the bare 

 ground, at the end of a hole in a bank, half a yard 

 in length; and the author concludes with a suppo- 

 sition that these birds sometimes, perhaps from ne- 

 cessity, build a nest, and at other times make the 

 dry ground answer that purpose. 



In the Ornithological Dictionary of Colonel 

 Montagu we find the following statement on this 

 subject. 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 the 

 earth: this is undoubtedly the castings of the pa- 

 rent birds, and not the young, for we have found 

 it even before they have eggs, and have every reaj. 

 son to believe both male and female go to that 



