THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 103 
are five, pure white, and the first brood usually comes 
out about the beginning of June, and sometimes 
sooner, according to that part of the country where 
they reside. On the shores of Kentucky river, near 
the town of Frankfort, I found the female sitting 
early in April. They are very tenacious of their 
haunts, breeding for several successive years in the 
same hole, and do not readily forsake it, even though 
it be visited. 
"An intelligent young gentleman informed me, that, 
having found where a kingfisher built, he took away 
its eggs from time to time, leaving always one be- 
hind, until he had taken no less than eighteen from 
the same nest. At some of these visits, the female 
being within, retired to the extremity of the hole, 
while he withdrew the egg ; and next day, when he 
returned, he found she had laid again as usual. Over 
winds and the waves the humble kingfishers of our 
days, at least the species now before us, have no 
control. Its nest is neither constructed of glue nor 
fish bones ; but of loose grass and a few feathers. 
It is not thrown on the surface of the water to float 
about with its proprietor at random, but snugly 
secured from the winds and the weather in the re- 
