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lie said that scaicely a peach in the garden escaped having one or more large pieces pecked out of 
it, and that the birds did not meddle with the ripe fruit, but attacked it when it was just ripening 
and befoie it became soft, ihis seems to indicate that, as in my case, the fruit was wanted not for 
the consumption of the old birds themselves, but as food for their young, and that it was taken 
therefore be.'oie it was too soft to be carried in the bill, or not required after the fruit was 
lipe, because the young biids were then fledged. Mr. Enderby was quite positive that it was the 
Kotares and not Sparrows who were the depredators, as he saw them taking the fruit, and said 
he at first had a great mind to shoot them, till he noticed that they evidently carried it away to 
their nests.” 
I am not aware that the Kingfisher is ever nocturnal in its habits ; but on one occasion, when 
travelling by coach along the banks of the Manawatu river, about 2.30 a.m., it being a cloudy night 
and quite dark, I heard the loud call-notes of this bird with startling distinctness. Probably it was 
a sleeper disturbed by the passing of the coach ; although under these circumstances birds, as a rule, 
betake themselves off in silence to another roosting-place. 
The New-Zealand Kingfisher commences to breed towards the end of November or early in 
December, usually selecting for its nesting-operations a tree denuded of its bark and decayed at heart, 
standing near the margin of the forest or in an old Maori clearing. By means of its powerful bill 
it cuts a round passage through the hard exterior surface, and then scoops out a deep cavity, pro- 
ceeding in a horizontal direction for several inches, and then downwards to an extent of ten inches or 
more. The bird thus instinctively protects its chamber from the inclemencies of the weather. 
There is no further attempt at forming a nest, the eggs being deposited on a layer of pulverized 
decayed wood, the shavings and sawdust, so to speak, of the borer’s operations in finishing the cavity. 
Ihe labour of boring a cavity is often greatly augmented by natural impediments. If, after 
drilling through the hard external surface, the bird finds the inner wood too hard for its tools, it at 
once abandons the spot and sounds the tree in another place. I have counted half a dozen or more 
of these abortive borings on a single tree, in addition to the finished one, affording evidence of 
indomitable perseverance on the part of the bird, and a determination not to forsake a tree which 
it had instinctively selected as a suitable one for its operations. In two instances, however, I have 
known the Kingfisher to adopt an existing hollow in a partially decayed kahikatea tree, dispensing- 
altogether with the labour of boring and forming it. 
The nestling of this species is a very curious object. On bursting from the shell it presents the 
following appearance : the abdomen, as in most young birds, is perfectly bare ; on the other parts 
each feather is encased in a sharp-pointed sheath of a greyish colour, closely studded, and bristling 
like the quills of a porcupine. Before the young birds quit the nest, the sheathings gradually burst, 
exposing the true feathers in all their brilliancy ; vestiges, however, of this spiny condition adhere 
to the fore part of the head for several days after the birds have quitted their cell. 
On being alarmed or excited, the young Kingfisher utters a prolonged rasping cry, sounding 
very harsh to the ear. The parent birds are very fierce when their nest is molested, darting into the 
face of the intruder, and flying off again, with a loud, quickly repeated note of alarm. 
Mr. Bobertson, of Waireka, near Wanganui, informs me that he once saw a cat killed by a pair 
of these birds. The unfortunate puss had been treed by a dog and was hanging on to the bole, 
spread-eagle fashion, when she was fiercely attacked by a pair of Kingfishers who appeared to con- 
sider their nest in danger. After receiving repeated thrusts from the bills of her assailants the cat 
fell to the ground and shortly afterwards expired. 
In the Canterbury district, where timber is scarce, it more frequently burrows a hole in a 
bank, and often near the sea-beach. On examining one of these holes, Mr. Potts observed that 
the bottom inclined slightly upwards from the entrance, and that the eggs were deposited on a 
