So general is the dispersion of the Kingfisher in all parts of England, that there are few situations, of whieh 
water forms a part, where it may not he found ; even the waters in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park are 
seldom without a solitary example sitting motionless in some nook or corner : yet how few of the busy denizens 
of our over-crowded metropolis have ever seen it there ! 
To find a Kingfisher on the Thames, or indeed on any other river, some knowledge of the habits of the 
bird must have been previously acquired. If the water be clear, it may be seen over the main stream; but 
if turbid and heavy, and its favourite food not visible, the bird instinctively resorts to a neighbouring ditch 
or some backwater : there he patiently sits on an overhanging bush, and drops upon any aquatic insect, 
stickleback, or other small fish. There are times, ])articularly in autumn, when a partial migration takes 
place, and the young at least leave the river altogether for the salt marshes near the sea; here every ditch 
crossed by a rail forms a perch, whence it keeps a sharp look-out for crustaceous or other aquatic creatures, 
in the choice of which it is not over-nice or particular. Voracity, in fact, is one of the characteristics, not 
only of our bird, but of the whole race. The Australian Kingfisher will attack a small rat ; the English bird a 
bullhead or a gudgeon the length of its own body, by which means it is not unfrequently choked. No 
greater proof can he given of the immense number of fish destroyed by these birds than the fact that, of the 
bones cast up in the shape of lengthened pellets from the stomach of a single pair, a large dry nest was 
formed in a few days. That such a quantity of bones should be cast up in so short a period may seem 
strange ; but facts are stubborn things, and I will now relate an incident of this kind which came under my 
own observation. 
On the 18th of April 1859, during one of my fishing-excursions on the Thames, I saAv a hole in a preci- 
pitous hank, which I felt assured was the nesting-place of a Kingfisher; and on passing a spare top of my 
fly-rod to the extremity, a distance of nearly three feet, I brought out some freshly cast bones of fish, con- 
vincing me that I was right in my surmise. The day following I again visited the spot with a spade ; and 
after removing nearly two feet square of the turf, dug down to the nest without disturbing the passage 
which led to it. Here I found four eggs, placed on the usual layer of fish-bones. Tliese I removed with 
care, and then replaced the earth, beating it down as hard as the bank itself, and restored the turfy sod. A 
fortnight after, the bird was seen to leave tbe hole again, and my suspicion was awakened that she had taken 
to her old breeding-quarters a second time. I again visited the ])lace on the twenty-first day from the date 
of my former exploration, and, upon passing the top of my fly-rod up the hole, found not only that it was 
of the former length, but that the female was within. I then took a large mass of cotton-wool from my 
collecting-box, and stuffed it to the extremity, in order to preserve the eggs from damage during my 
again laying it open from above. On removing the sod and digging down as before, I came to the cotton- 
wool, and beneath it a well-formed nest of fish-bones, the size of a small saucer, the walls of which Avere fully 
half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful, translucent, pale pinky-white eggs, and the old female 
herself. This nest I removed with the greatest care ; and it is now deposited in the proper resting-place for 
so Interesting an object, the British Museum. This mass of bones, then Aveighing 700 grains, had been cast 
up and deposited by the bird and its mate in the short space of twenty-one days. Ornithologists are divided 
in opinion as to Avhether the fish-bones are to be considered in the light of a nest. Some are disposed to 
believe them to be the castings and fasces of the young brood of the year, and that the same hole being 
frequented for a succession of years, a great mass is at length formed ; Avhile others suppose that they are 
deposited by the parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting, in fact, a nest ; and I think, from Avhat I 
have adduced, aa e may fairly conclude that this is the case ; in fact nothing could be better adapted to defend 
the eggs from the damp earth. 
The great Dacelones of Australia deposit their eggs in cavernous IioHoaa-s in the boles of the Eucalypti ; the 
Halcyones in the spouts of the branches of the same trees ; both on the bare AAmod. Our Kingfisher, and 
probably all the true Alcedines, on the other hand, like the Sand-Martin, drills a circular, upAvard-slanting 
hole in an upright bank, to the depth of two or three feet, at the end of Avhich it excaA^ates an oven-like 
chamber, large enough for its seven or eight young to sit upright on the nest of bones, the slanting- 
direction of the entrance serving as a drain for the excrement ; and hence the foetid odour from this cloaca 
often leads to the detection of the breeding-place. It is also detectable by means of another sense ; for if the 
ear be placed to the opening, the shrill Amices of the young, resembling the noise produced by a spinning- 
Avheel, or the pea in a child’s rattle, may be heard. When the young quit the hole, they sit about on the 
neighbouring branches, and greet the old birds as they arrive and supply by turns the ravenous brood. 
These young fliers generally resemble the adults in colour; they are therefore gaily dressed from the 
beginning. The adult of both sexes are much alike ; the male, hoAvever, is smaller than his mate in size, 
but brighter in colour. 
Independently of the British Islands, the Kingfisher inhabits every part of Europe, except the extreme 
north ; it is also distributed over the African border of the Mediterranean ; in India it is replaced by a nearly 
allied species, the Alcedo Bengaleiisis. 
The Plate represents the two sexes, of the natural size, on the Carex rlparia. 
