278 Birds. 
to death, and afterwards swallows. When it cannot 
find a projecting bough, it sits on some stone near the 
brink, or even on the gravel"; but the moment it per- 
ceives the fish, it takes a spring upwards of twelve 
or fifteen feet, and drops from that height upon its 
prey. 
The Kingfisher lays its eggs, to the number of seven or 
more, in a hole in the bank of the river or stream that it 
frequents. Dr. Heysham had a female brought alive to 
him at Carlisle by a boy, who said he had taken it the 
preceding night when sitting on its eggs. His informa- 
tion on the subject was, that "having often observed 
these birds frequent a bank upon the river Peteril, he had 
watched them carefully, and at last he saw them go into 
a small hole in the bank. The hole was too narrow to 
admit his hand ; but, as it was made in soft mould, he 
easily enlarged it. It was upwards of half a yard long ; 
at the end of it the eggs, which were six in number, 
were placed upon the bare mould, without the smallest 
appearance of a nest." The eggs were considerably larger 
than those of the yellow-hammer, and of a transparent 
white colour. It appears, from a still later account, that 
the direction of the holes is always upward ; that they 
are enlarged at the end, and have there a kind of bedding 
formed of the bones of small fish, and some other sub- 
stances, evidently the castings of the parent animals. 
This bedding is generally half an inch thick, and mixed 
with earth ; and on it the female deposits and hatches 
her eggs. When the young ones are nearly full-feathered 
they are extremely voracious ; and as the old birds do 
not supply them with all the food they can devour, they 
are continually chirping, and may be discovered by 
their noise. 
