[Illustration]
This beautiful little animal is much smaller than the cocker, to which
he is similar in shape and other characteristics; he has, however,
longer ears, and the tail is also longer in proportion to the size of
his body. Like the cocker and springer, he is extremely fond of pursuing
birds of all kinds, and, like them, too, always gives tongue in pursuit.
He is seldom used for field sports, from his diminutive size, being
easily tired, and is too short in the legs to get through swampy ground.
This dog is found of all colours; but those which are black, with tanned
cheeks and legs, are considered the purest breed. He gets the name of
King Charles’s dog from the extreme liking the second monarch of that
name had for this animal, as he never went out without being followed by
eight or a dozen of them. They were also introduced into most of the
portraits of himself and family, and particularly in that by Vandyke.
They were also his constant companions in the palace.
The use of this variety at present is as a lap-dog, and they are
consequently prized in proportion to the diminutiveness of their size.
The sense of smelling in this little spaniel is very remarkable. The
following anecdote is related by Brown to instance it:—
In 1792, a gentleman who lived in Vere Street, Clare Market, went, with
his family, to the pit of Drury Lane theatre, at about half-past five in
the evening, leaving a small spaniel of King Charles’s breed locked up
in the dining room, to prevent it from being lost in his absence. At
eight o’clock his son opened the door, and the dog immediately went to
the playhouse, and found out his master, though the pit was unusually
crowded, and its master seated near the centre.—_Brown._
KINGFISHER, _s._ A species of bird.
[Illustration]
_King-fisher._ (_Alcedo ispida_, LINN.; _Le Martin-pécheur_, BUFF.)—This
splendid little bird is rather of a clumsy shape, the head being large
in proportion to the size of the body, and the legs and feet very small.
In length it is only seven inches, in breadth eleven; and its weight is
about two ounces and a quarter. The bill, measured from the corners of
the mouth, is two inches long, vertically compressed on the sides,
strong, straight, and tapering to a sharp point: the upper mandible is
black, fading into a red-colour towards the base; the under one, as well
as the inside of the mouth, is of a reddish orange: the irides are
hazel, inclining to red. A broad stripe passes from the bill over the
eye to the hinder part of the neck, a bright orange colour, but margined
on the side of the mouth, and crossed, below the eye, by a narrow black
stroke, and it is terminated behind the auriculars with a slanting
wedge-shaped white spot. The throat is white; the rest of the head and
wing coverts are of a deep shining green, spotted with bright light
blue: the scapulars and exterior webs of the quills are of the same
colour, but without spots. The middle of the back, the rump, and the
coverts of the tail are of a most resplendent azure: the tail, which
consists of twelve short feathers, is of a rich deep blue, and the whole
under part of the body of a bright orange. The legs and toes are of a
red-colour, and are peculiar in their shape and conformation, the three
forward toes being unconnected from the claws to the first joints, from
whence they appear as if grown into each other; and the inner and hinder
ones are placed in a line on the inside of the foot, whereby the heel is
widened and seems pressed out.
The suspension of this bird by a thread, under the notion that its
breast will always turn to the north, is as fabulous as that it will
preserve woollen cloth from the moth.
“I have once or twice,” says Mrs. Charlotte Smith, “seen a stuffed bird
of this species hung up to the beam of a cottage ceiling, and imagined
that the beauty of the feathers had recommended it to this sad
pre-eminence, till, on inquiry, I was assured that it served the purpose
of a weather-vane; and, though sheltered from the immediate influence of
the wind, never failed to show every change, by turning its beak to the
quarter whence the wind blew.” The learned, but somewhat credulous
author of the “Physicæ Curiosæ,” says the same, upon the testimony of
his own observation. “Father Athanasius Kircher,” he says, “had one of
these birds sent him as a present by a friend, and being disembowelled
and dried, it was suspended from the ceiling of his celebrated museum,
from 1640 to 1655, when I left Rome; and though all the doors and
windows were shut, it constantly turned its bill towards the wind, and
this I myself observed with admiration and pleasure almost every day for
the space of three years!!”
It is difficult to conceive why ornithologists have classed the
kingfisher with land birds, as its habits and manner of living are
wholly confined to the waters, on the margins of which it will sit for
hours together on a projecting twig or a stone, at one while fluttering
its wings and exposing its brilliant plumage to the sun; at another,
hovering in the air, like the kestrel, it waits the moment when it may
seize its prey, on which it darts with almost unerring certainty: often
it remains for several seconds under the water, before it has gained the
object of its pursuit, then brings up the little fish, which it carries
to the land, beats to death, and swallows.
The female commonly makes her nest by the sides of rivers or brooks, in
a hole made by the mole, or the water-rat: this she enlarges or
contracts to suit her purpose; and it is conjectured, from the
difficulty of finding the nest, that frequently the hole which leads to
it is under water.
Kingfishers are not so numerous as might be expected from the number of
eggs found in their nests; owing, probably, to the young being destroyed
by the floods, which must often rise above the level of the holes where
they are bred.
Except in the breeding-season, the bird is usually seen alone, flying
near the surface of the water with the rapidity of an arrow, like a
little brilliant meteor, by which appearance the eye is enabled to
follow its long-continued course. Considering the shortness of its
wings, the velocity with which it flies is surprising.
Ornithologists inform us that kingfishers are found in almost every part
of the globe; but it does not appear that more than this one species has
ever been seen in Europe.