74 LITTLE FOLKS 
He's so determined to beat his food, that when kept in a cage 
and fed on raw meat, he will not eat it until it is well beaten. 
By-and-by, when the water gets still, Mrs. Kingfisher will spy 
a fish, dart down into the water and bring out her dinner. I said 
he wouldn't divide his dinner with his wife ; but you mustn't think 
he's a bad husband — far from it. He not only helps her fish for 
the little ones, when they're hatched, but he sits on the eggs part 
of the time, so that she can get a little fresh air, and fish for 
herself. 
That's being very, very good — for a bird. Some of them, 
like our common turkey, are such bad fathers that they'll break 
every egg and kill every baby. That's why the poor turkey mother 
has to hide her nest, as you country children know she does. It's 
not to bother you to hunt her up ; it's to protect her little turkeys 
from their bad father. So you see Mr. Kingfisher is an exemplary 
husband and father — for a bird. 
He's a beautiful little fellow too, with lovely blue back and red 
breast. He does not sing ; in fact he belongs to the family of 
screamers, and his cry sounds something like a watchman's rattle. 
He delights in qiuet rivers and streams, where he can fish and 
spend his life in peace. Sometimes he catches more fish than he 
can eat, and again he catches fish larger than he can swallow. For 
such emergencies he is pretty sure to have a store-house — some 
safe hole in the roots of a tree or between rocks. The fish are 
killed by a bite across the neck, and sometimes as many as five or 
six are found. 
But now and then a sad accident happens to this pretty little 
fellow. When pretty large, he has been known to catch a fish too 
large to swallow, and on trying to get it down, it would stick in his 
throat and choke him to death. 
Mr. Wood tells an interesting story of a Kingfisher in 
England. He attempted to swallow a fish that was too large for 
him, and of course got choked. While he was floating down the 
stream, flapping his wings and trying to get the fish down, a large 
pike stuck his head out of the water, and seizing Kingfisher, fish 
and all, carried them off — probably for his dinner. 
So you wonder how these little birds make their fish-bone 
beds for their babies ? I told you they swallowed their food whole, 
so of course the bones are all in. Well, after the fish is digested, 
the bones and scales remain in the stomach, and not being very 
