KINGFISHER 
177 
nise an absolutely motionless human figure. But 
persecution has made the Kingfisher a wary bird in 
general, and it is more often to be seen only as a 
swift passing streak of glittering blue, uttering an 
extremely thin, shrill, piping cry. To propel the 
heavy head and body with such swift, undeviating 
flight, the wings have to move with extreme 
rapidity, so that the bird seems to move in the 
midst of a blur of azure light. In certain lights 
the metallic sheen of the plumage may almost 
completely disappear, and the dull, odd-shaped 
bird then looks wholly unfamiliar. The chestnut 
plumage of the breast is in any case not nearly 
so lustrous as the greens and blues of the back. 
When fishing, the bird descends upon the water 
from its perch with a resounding smack, and 
returns to its post with the prey held in its bill, 
before shaking it the right way up, and swallowing 
it. It will also hover over the water, hunting for 
its prey. Minnows and the small fry of other 
fishes are the usual food, but it also feeds upon 
water-beetles and other small creatures of the 
streams. During the cold weather the Kingfisher 
often leaves the smaller streams and brooks for 
the larger lakes and rivers, or the sea-shore, re- 
turning early in spring. Tennyson's reference to 
the " sea-blue bird of March is therefore no 
less true to English nature for being partly de- 
N 
