210 Birds Every Child Should Know 
the Idngfisher and the bank swallow retain at 
least one ancient custom of their ancestors, for 
they still place their eggs in the ground. The 
lone fisherman chooses a mate early in the spring 
and, with her help, he tunnels a hole in a bank 
next a good fishing ground. A minnow pool 
furnishes the most-approved baby food. Per- 
haps the mates will work two or three weeks 
before they have tunnelled far enough to suit 
them and made a spacious nursery at the end 
of the long hall. Usually from five to eight 
white eggs are laid about six feet from the en- 
trance on a bundle of grass, or perhaps on a 
heap of ejected fish bones and refuse. While 
his queen broods, the devoted kingfisher brings 
her the best of his catch. At first their babies 
are as bare and skinny as their cuckoo relatives. 
When the father or mother bird flies up stream 
with a fish for them, giving a rattling call in- 
stead of ringing a dinner bell, all the hungry 
youngsters rush forward to the mouth of the 
tunnel ; but only one can be satisfied each trip. 
Then all run backward through the inclined 
tunnel, like reversible steam engines, and keep 
tightly huddled together until the next exciting 
rattle is heard. Both parents are always on 
guard to drive off mink, rats and water snakes 
that are the terrors of their nursery. 
