96 THE AFRICAN BROWN-BELLIED KINGFISHER 
( Ispidina picta and C. cyanostigma) near streams and swamps, 
but I venture to think that the food obtained in these localities 
consists almost entirely of insects. 
The Brown-bellied Kingfisher frequents gardens in certain 
localities and does a lot of good in clearing off grasshoppers. 
When alarmed they make a sharp whistling call of two 
notes ; they also utter a chattering sound on occasions. 
During June and July of 1912 I had a pair of these birds 
under close observation. 
They had commenced nesting when I first found them, 
and the site chosen was a railway embankment not far from 
Port Florence station, where a considerable amount of 
shunting went on daily. 
The nest was some eighteen inches in ; for the first four inches 
the tunnel inclined upwards and then became level and ended in 
a circular chamber about six inches in diameter. The circum- 
ference of the tunnel was only just large enough to allow the 
bird to enter, and being made in red earth the white upper 
parts of the birds became very soiled in wet weather. 
Whether the birds constructed the tunnel themselves or 
not I cannot say. 
By carefully enlarging the entrance hole, one could, with 
the aid of a mirror, examine the contents of the nest. 
On June 22 the nest contained four white eggs almost 
spherical in shape and somewhat glossy. 
Nesting materials were absent. The female bird sat very 
close and could not be made to leave the nest, no doubt relying 
on the depth of the nest for protection. 
Within a week of my finding the nest the eggs hatched, 
so that one could not reckon the incubation period. 
The young were practically naked but soon showed signs 
of feathers and grew rapidly ; when coming into feather they 
are curious-looking creatures, and when disturbed utter a 
hissing noise. The first plumage is like that of the female, 
though duller, and the beak and feet are brown. 
It was after the young had hatched that I obtained the 
photographs of the parent birds at the nest. 
The bank was some fifteen feet high, and the nest four 
feet from the top and difficult to get at with a camera, but by 
