THE SAVAGE WORLD, 
3i9 
on some bough fishing all day long. When aroused from his vigils he leaps 
off his perch with a sharp metallic twitter, but soon assumes another position, and 
( proceeds with his fishing. Other species, in no wise differing in habit, are the 
Spotted (Ceryle guttata ), Great African (C. maxima), Black and White, 
(C. rudis) , and the Speckled (. Alcedo ispida ). 
The kingfisher is one of the most voracious of birds, and occasionally 
pays dearly for his gluttony, as several anecdotes are related to show. Woods 
writes, in his Natural History : 
“ Sometimes the bird has been known to meet with a deadly retribution on 
the part of his prey, and to fall a victim to his voracity. One such example 
I have seen. A kingfisher had caught a common bull-head, or miller’s thumb, 
a well-known large-headed fish, and on attempting to swallow it had been 
baffled by the large head, 
which refused to pass 
through the gullet, and 
accordingly choked the 
bird. The k ingfisher 
must have been extremely 
hungry when it attempted 
to eat so large a morsel, 
as the fish was evidently 
of a size that could not 
possibly have been accom¬ 
modated in the bird’s inte¬ 
rior. Several similar exam¬ 
ples are known; but one, 
which is recorded by Mr. 
Quekett, is of so remark¬ 
able a kind, that it is worthy 
of notice. The bird had 
caught and actually at¬ 
tempted to swallow a young 
dabchick, and, as might be 
supposed, had miserably 
failed in the attempt. 
“The most complete instance of poetical justice befalling a kingfisher, is 
one which occurred in Gloucestershire, and was related to me by an eye-witness. 
The narrator was sitting on the bank of a favorite river, and watching the 
birds, fish and insects that disport themselves upon and in its waters, when 
some strange blue object was seen floating down the stream and splashing the 
water with great vehemence. On a nearer approach it was seen to be a 
kingfisher, from whose mouth protruded the tail and part of the body of a fish. 
The struggles of the choking bird became more and more faint, and had well- 
nigh ceased, when a pike protruded his broad nose from the water, seized both 
kingfisher and fish, and disappeared with them in the regions below.” 
Such a misfortune sometimes befalls other fish-eating birds, for I one time 
saw a small grebe, in a St. Louis park, meet with a like disaster. It was 
fishing most industriously for small sun-fishes, quite a number of which it had 
eaten, when I observed it rise to the surface with a fish double the size of 
FABLED NEST OF THE HALCYON BIRD. 
