The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-24 00:00:00

THE COM111(1SIIER.

(From lloutiedge's Illustrated Natural llistory.)

The common Kingfisher is by far the most gorgeously
decorated of all our ind:genous birds, and can bear cum-
paiison u:tli many of the gaily decorated inhabitants of
tropical climates.
It is a sufficiently common bird, although distributed
very thinly over the whole country, and considering the
great number of eggs which it lays, and the large propor-
tion of young which it rears, is p.obably more plentiful
than is generally supposed to be the case. The straight,
glancing flight of the Kingfisher, as it shoots along the
river-bank, its azure back gleaming in the sunlight with
meteoric splendour, is a sight familiar to all those who
have been accustomed to wander by the sides of rivers,
whether for the purpose of angling, or merely to study the
beauties of nature. So swift is the flight of this bird, and
with such wonderful rapidity does it move its short wings,
its shape is hardly perceptible as it passes through the air,
and it leaves upon the eye of the observer the impression
of a blue streak of light. This straight, arrow-like course
is that which is generally adopted by the bird, but on some
occasions the Kingfishers will become very playful, and
sport with each other in the air, turning and wheeling with
much adroitness as they mutually chase or avoid each
other in their game.
The food of this bird consists ehiefly; thoughTiot exclu-
sively, of fish, which:it takes, Ir'lls, and eats in thelollow-
ing manner :

Seated upon a convenient bough or rail that overhangs
a stream where the smaller fish love to pass, the Kingfisher
waits very patiently until he sees au unsuspecting minnow
or stickleback pass below his perch, and then, with a rapid
movement, drops into the water like a stone and secures
his prey. Should it be a small,Rsh, he swallows it at once,
but if it should be of rather largo dimensions, he carries it
to a stone or stump, beats it two Dr three times against the
hard substance, and then swallows it'without any trouble.
The Kingfisher is sometimes given to hoarding, and
having caught more fish than ho can eat, will take them
to his secret storehouse, and there hide them until he is
able to eat them. In one such; base, in which an account
has been forwarded to me, the bird seemed to employ its
storehouse for the reception of fish which it had caught
and which were too largo for it to swallow. The treasury
chosen by this individual was a crevico formed by the roots
of a willow-tree that grew close to the water's edge, and
it usually contained one or two fish. Sometimes there
would be five or six fishes lying in the hole, and some of
them so largo that they have been removed and cooked.
The bird must sometimes have found a great difficulty in
getting its prey fa;rly ashore, as the tracks were evident
on the soft mud of the bank where the fish had boon
dragged, and the ',bird's feet had trodden. Young trout
were the general occupants of the storehouse, and in every
case the fish had been killed by a bite across the back of
the head or neck.

Sometimes the bird has been known to meet with a
deadly retribution on the pai'L of his prey, and to fall a
victim to h;s voracity.. One such example I have seen. A.
Kingfisher had caught a common bull-head, or miller's
thumb, a well-known largo-headed fish, and on attempting
to swallow it had been bafflad by the large head, which re-
fused to pass through the gullet, and accordingly choked
the bird. The Kingfisher 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 accommodated iu the bird's interior. Several similar
examples aro known ; but one, which is recorded by Mr.
Quekett, is of so remarkable a kind that it is worthy of
notice. The bird had caught and actually attempted 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 favourite river and watching
the birds, fish, and insects that disport themselves upon
and in its waters, when some strange blue object was soon
floating douu 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. Thu 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 theta
into the regions below.
The same parson who related this tragical story, and
who has always felt an ardent love for birds, beasts, and
things that enjoy the blessings of life, and to whom I
have been indebted for much curious information and
many valuable specimens of natural history, also tells me
that Kingfishers aro greatly- susceptible of music, pro-
vided that it bo played in a slow and solemn strain like
the old ecclesiastic chants. There was an organ in the
house placed in the room that looked towards the stream
which the Kingfishers frequented, and it was observed
by the household that whenever music of such a character
was played upon the organ the Kingfishers would soon
make their appearance at the bottom of the garden, and sit
as if enchanted with the strains. Quick and lively airs
seemed rather to disconcert the birds, a fact which was
not discovered until after many experiments and the con-
sumption of much time.
With the fish it generally feeds its young, being able to
disgorge at will the semi-digested food which it has swal-
lowed, after the manner of most birds of prey. Fish, how-
ever, do not constitute its sole nourishment, as it is known
to eat various insects, such as dragon-flies and water-
beetles, and will often in cold weather pay a visit to the
sea shore for the purpose of feeding upon the little crabs,
shrimps, and sandhoppors that are found upon the edge
of the tide. Still, by far the greatest portion of its diet
is composed of fish ; and I have never yet found any frag-
ments of insect anatomy among the debris which forms the
nest.

The nest of the Kingfisher is always made in some con-
venient bank, at thu extremity of a hole which has previ-
ously been occupied and deserted by the water rat or other
mining quadrupeds, and been enlarged and adapted for use
by the Kingfisher. Now and then the nest of this bird
has been found built in the deserted hole of a rabbit-warren
It is always found that the tunnel slopes gently upward,
and that the bird has shaped the extremity into a globular
form in order to contain the parent bird, the nest, and eggs.
Sometimes the nest is placed in the natural crevices formed
by the roots of trees growing on the water's edge. In
many cases it is easily detected, fur the birds aro.very care-
less about the concealment of their nest even before the
eggs are hatched, and after the young have made their ap-
airiasnafctuiearbisnloetnihlneetdshvieositir-aldan,pepeth,eetaiyntedatrihenasdtoicatchlteaeimrwonirotohiusysgrvefooair food and
so
i
heard
tce psreccainsiobne
the direction of their home.

Some writers:say that the interior of the burrow is kept
so scrupulously clean that it is free from all evil scents.
My own experience,
however, contradicts this assertion ;
for, after introducing the hand into a Kingfisher's nest, I
%have always found it imbued with so offensive an odour
that I was fain to wash it repeatedly in the nearest stream.
As the Kingfisher is so piscatorial in its habits, it would
naturally be supposed that the nest would be placed in
close connection with the stream from which the parent
birds obtained their daily food. I have, however, several
times seen a Kingfisher's nest, and obtained the eggs, in
spots that were not within half a mile of a fish-inhabited
stream. The bird is greatly attached to the burrow in
which it has once made its nest,'and'will make use of the
same spot year after year, even though the nest be plun-
dered and the eggs stolen.

The eggs are from six to eight in number, rather globu-
lar in form, and of an- exquisitely delicate pink in colour
when fresh, changing to a pearly white when the contents
are removed. As soon as the young are able to exert
themselves, they perch on a neighbouring twig or other
convenient resting place, and squall Incessantly for food
In a very short time they assume their yearling-plumage
which is very nearly the same as that of the adult bird,
and soon learn to fish on their own account.