I 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
of Kingfishers in the southern parts of Australia, and in South Australia they 
may be seen along all the rivers. At the Reedbeds we have it all the year 
round, its food consisting of small fish from the stream, also it may often be 
seen darting down on the ground in the paddocks, catching some grub or 
insect, which it will take to a neighbouring tree, and there whack it against 
the bough until battered about, and eventually swallow it. Although in many 
places this bird breeds in hollow limbs of trees, at the Reedbeds it always 
burrows holes in the dry bank of the stream, well above summer level of the 
water, the burrow being only a foot or eighteen inches deep, and hollowed 
into a cavity, inside which it lays four or five round white eggs on the 
soft dry soil, and when the young hatch out, the position of the nest 
is easily observed by the excrement from the young that runs down the 
bank at the mouth of the burrow, and also by the harsh, screeching 
notes of the young, which sound like hah-buried notes, as they caU to the 
parent bird to bring them food, for they are ravenous Uttle things. 
They breed late, starting late in October and going on into November, 
December and January ; no doubt the birds wait until the water level is 
sure, else a flood would swamp out their nests, and so spoil their work, as 
their burrows are always well down below the usual winter level of the 
water. They use the old hollows again for several years, until they get 
dilapidated, and then they often burrow out a new one not far away. I also 
saw them on ithe Capricorn Isles when there in October 1910, and when 
camped on North-West Island I took a nest of eggs, four in number, 
from a hollow in a soft wooded Pisonia tree : here the birds seemed to 
five solely on the sea fife, eating small crabs and crustaceans and marine 
fife found on the coral reefs when the tide was low, and being no fresh 
w'ater, it was obvious that they did not require that as a necessity for 
living.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe states that to Victoria this bird “is a summer 
visitor, generally making its appearance towards the end of September, 
and departs again in early autumn. The call is composed of five high 
pitched notes, and it also has an angry cry of ‘ Kree,’ which it utters 
on the wing. Both birds help in feeding the young, and also in drilling 
the dead wood from the tree boles where the eggs are to be placed.” 
This supposed migratory movement in Victoria has been also remarked 
upon by other observers, and Mr. E. J. Christian wrote me : “ This is 
a migratory bird, and departs from the South as soon as winter comes. 
It seems to like the dry warm places, and, although a Kingfisher, does 
not catch fish. I have seen it in parts where dams were all dry, and 
there was no water for miles around. It is a useful bird, and fives on 
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