THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 
69 
rights of an established owner. A vigorous battle, accompanied 
by any amount of shrill screaming, is the consequence, and 
when the weaker bird turns tail, he is pursued by the victor 
with great fury, the chase being often carried on high in the 
air. When thus seen, the occasional glimpses of the brilliant 
blue backs and chestnut breasts of the birds, as they shoot 
along, are always pleasing. 
In the autumn, the number of Kingfishers on any large river 
is increased by the influx of birds which have been nesting in 
out-of-the-way places, and have frequented brooks and lakes 
during the summer. A considerable autumnal migration takes 
place, and the Kingfisher may then be seen on our southern 
coasts in some numbers, frequenting reedy ditches and sluices, 
and not uncommonly the open shore, where the birds feed on 
small shell-fish. The principal food of the Kingfisher, how- 
ever, consists of fish, and these it catches with great dexterity, 
sitting generally on an exposed post or bough, from which it 
keeps a keen eye on the water below. The speed with whicn 
it flies from one perch to another, often crossing a field in 
passing from haunt to haunt, is truly wonderful, as is also the 
way in which it will suddenly arrest its flight on arriving at its 
station, and settle down without any apparent slowing off of its 
headlong flight. When first settled, the bird often bobs its 
head up and down and from side to side, and, in the act of 
perching, it may be seen to elevate the tail, as if to secure an 
immediate balance. 
Nest. — None, that can properly be so called. The birds 
bore for themselves, in a sandy bank, a long tunnel, at which 
both male and female labour. At the end of this tunnel is a 
chamber, in which the eggs are laid. Sometimes stones or 
roots obtrude in the course of the boring, and the birds have 
to seek another place, but in one instance I remember finding 
a nest with seven eggs in the middle of a wood, and at a con- 
siderable distance from the river. An old tree in a bed of 
sand had been blown down and its roots were exposed and 
standing out into the air. Underneath these overhanging 
roots the birds had mined their tunnel, which, after a foot or 
so, was obstructed by roots of considerable size, but the birds 
had driven their hole over and under these obstructions, until 
