452 
KINGFISHER. 
Our species of kingfisher is not nqmerous, 
though they have sometimes nine young ones at a 
hatch, according to Gesner. Their mode of life 
proves often fatal ; nor do they always with impu- 
nity brave the rigours of our winters, for they are 
sometimes found dead under the ice. They seem 
unable to exist long without their proper food ; for 
of four young ones which were brought to M. Buf- 
fon, in August 1778, two constantly rejected flies, 
paste, and cheese, and died of hunger in two days ; 
the two others ate a little cheese and some earth 
worms, bat lived only six days. The stomach of the 
kingfisher is roomy, and, like the birds of prey, it 
discharges the indigested fragments by the bill. 
From the earliest time to the present, a super- 
stitious veneration has been entertained for these 
birds, in different parts of the world, and many 
marvellous qualities have been ascribed to them. 
We learn from Gmelin, that the kingfishers are 
seen over all Siberia, and the feathers of these birds 
are employed by the Tartars and the Ostiacs for 
many superstitious uses. The former pluck them, 
cast them into water, and carefully preserve such as 
float ; and they pretend, that if with one of these 
feathers they touch . a woman, or even her clothes, 
she will fall in love with them. The Ostiacs take 
the skin, the bill, and the claws of this bird, and 
shut them in a purse ; and as long as they preserve 
this sort of amulet, they believe that they have no 
ill to fear. “ The person,” continues Gmelin, “ who 
