Rarely indeed is this charming bird now found in England, where formerly
it could be seen darting hither and thither in most frequented places.
Of late years, according to Dixon, he has been persecuted so greatly,
partly by the collector, who never fails to secure the brilliant
creature for his cabinet at every opportunity, and partly by those who
have an inherent love for destroying every living object around them.
Gamekeepers, too, are up in arms against him, because of his inordinate
love of preying on the finny tribe. Where the Kingfisher now is seen is
in the most secluded places, the author adds, where the trout streams
murmur through the silent woods, but seldom trod by the foot of man; or
in the wooded gullies down which the stream from the mountains far above
rushes and tumbles over the huge rocks, or lies in pools smooth as the
finest mirror.
The Kingfisher is comparatively a silent bird, though he sometimes
utters a few harsh notes as he flies swift as a meteor through the
wooded glades. You not unfrequently flush the Kingfisher from the holes
in the banks, and amongst the brambles skirting the stream. He roosts at
night in holes, usually the nesting cavity. Sometimes he will alight on
stumps and branches projecting from the water, and sit quiet and
motionless, but on your approach he darts quickly away, often uttering
a feeble _seep, seep_, as he goes.
The habits of the English Kingfisher are identical with those of the
American, though the former is the more brilliant bird in plumage. (See
BIRDS, Vol. I, p. 61.) The ancients had a very absurd idea as to its
nesting habits. They believed that the bird built a floating nest, and
whenever the old bird and her charge were drifted by the winds, as they
floated over the briny deep, the sea remained calm. He was, therefore,
to the ancient mariner, a bird held sacred in the extreme. Even now
these absurd superstitions have not wholly disappeared. For instance,
the nest is said to be made of the fish bones ejected by the bird, while
the real facts are, that they not only nest but roost in holes, and it
must follow that vast quantities of rejected fish bones accumulate, and
on these the eggs are of necessity laid.
These eggs are very beautiful objects, being of a deep pinkish hue,
usually six in number.
The food of the Kingfisher is not composed entirely of fish, the remains
of fresh-water shrimps being found in their stomachs, and doubtless
other animals inhabiting the waters are from time to time devoured.
The English Kingfisher, says Dixon, remains throughout the year, but
numbers perish when the native streams are frozen. There is, perhaps,
not a bird in all the ranks of the feathered gems of equatorial regions,
be it ever so fair, the Humming-bird excepted, that can boast a garb so
lovely as this little creature of the northland. Naturalists assert that
the sun has something to do with the brilliant colors of the birds and
insects of the tropics, but certainly, the Kingfisher is an exception of
the highest kind. Alas, that he has no song to inspire the muse of some
English bard!
[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.
EUROPEAN KINGFISHER.
Copyrighted by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]