The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-02 00:00:00

BRECON ELECTION—This Day.

TWELVE O'CLOCK.

Gwyn

124

Lord Churchill
Mr. G wyn's return is certain

The Common Kingfisher,

-
(From Routiedge's Illustrated Natural Ilistory.)
[CONCLUDED].

Tho nest of the Kingfisher has long boon known to con-
sist of the bones, scales, and other indigestible poi .;ions of
the food, which aro ejected from the mouth in "castings,"
like those of the hawk or owl ; but until Mr. Gould recently
procured a perfect K'ngfisher's nest, its shape and the
manner of construction were entirely unknown. Ills ac-
count of its discovery, and the ingenious manner in which
it was procured, is so interesting that it must bo given in
his own words.

" Ornithologists are divided in opinion as to whether
the fish-bones found in the cavity in which the Kingfisher
deposits its eggs aro to be considered in the light of a
nest, or as merely the castings front the bird during the
period of incubation. Some are disposed to consider these
bones as entirely the castings and faces of the young brood
of the year before they quit the nest, and that the same
hole being frequented for a succession of years, a great
mass is at length formed; while others believe that
they are deposited by the parents as a platform for the
eggs, constituting, in fact, a nest; in which latter view I
fully concur, and the following are my reasons for so
doing:—

" On the 18th of the past month of April, during one of
my fishing excursions on the Thames, I saw a hole in a
precipitous bank, which I felt assured was a nesting-place of
the Kingfisher, and on passing a spare top of my fly rod
to the extremity of the hole, a distance of nearly three
feet, I brought out some freshly-cast bones of fish, con-
vincing me that I was right in my surmise. Ou a sub-
sequent day, the 9th of May, I again :sited th ) spot with
a spade, and after removing nearly two feet square of the
turf, dug down to the nest without disturbing the entrance
hole or the passage which led to it. Here I found four
eggs placed on the usual layer of fish-bones ; all of these
I removed with care, and then filled up the hole, beating
the earth down as hard as the bank itself, and replacim;
the sod on the top in order that barge-horses passing to
and fro might not put a foot in the hole. A folLnight
afterwards the bird was seen to leave the hole again, and
my suspicion was awakened that she had takon to her old
breeding-quarters a second time.
" The first opportunity I had of again visiting the place,
which was exactly twenty-one days from the date of my
former exploration and tqking the eggs, 1 again] passed
the top of my fly-rod up the hole, and found not only that
the hole was of the former length, but that the female was
within. I then took'a large mass of cotton wool from
my collecting-box, and stuffed it to the extremity of the
hole, in order to preserve the eggs and nest from damage
during my again laying it open from above. On removing
the sod and digging down as before, I came upon the
cotton wool, and beneath it a well-formed nest of fish-
bones, the size of a small saucer, the walls of which were
fully half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful eggs
and the old female herself. This nest and eggs I re-
moved with the greatest care, and I now have the pleasure
of exhibiting it to the Society, before its transmission to
the British Museum ; the proper resting-place of so inter-
esting a bird's nest. The mass of bones then, weighing
700 grains, had been cast up and deposited by the bird, or
the bird and its mate, besides the unusual number of eight
eggs, in the short space of twenty-one days.
To gain anything like an approximate idea of the number
of fish that had been taken to form this mass, the skeleton
of a minnow, their usual food, must be carefully made and
weighed, and this I may probably do upon some future
occasion. I think we may now conclude, from what I have
adduced, that the bird purposely deposits these bones as
a nest ; and nothing can be better adapted, as a platform,
to defend the eggs from the damp earth."
The Kingfisher, if unmolested, soon learns to be fami-
liar with man, and has no hesitation in carrying on the
daily affairs of its life without heeding the near presence
of a human observer. I have known a Kingfisher to sit
upon a projecting stone that overhung a stream running
at the foot of a garden, and to permit the owners of the
garden to watch its proceedings without exhibiting any
alarm. If managed properly, this interesting bird will so
far extend its confidence to man as to become partially
domesticated, speedily rivalling the robin or the sparrow
in the bold familiarity of its manners. One such bird, that
was tamed by a friend, owed its domestication to the loss
of its parents.