Abstract
RETURNING from my morning's round on a pleasant summer's day, I observed a kingfisher perched on a hazel bough close to a pretty little trout-stream; my attention was instantly aroused, for one does not often see these pretty creatures, even during prolonged country excursions, in such a position; and moreover his attitude was peculiar—perfect stillness, with an inclination of the head to the left pinion—just the posture in fact that I have seen a fatally wounded bird take previous to dropping from its resting-place; indeed so close was the resemblance that I expected every moment to see the bird I was watching drop into the water, believing it to have been wounded; guess my astonishment when the supposed invalid was seen to dart with amazing swiftness into the curling stream, rise, and continue its rapid flight without apparent interruption, to the rails surrounding a hay-stack close by, where I saw it making most energetic movements of the head and neck, and first became aware, from observing a silvery, glittering, and writhing little fish in its beak, that, instead of being ill as I supposed, and suddenly determined on trying the effects of a bath, he was actually at dinner. After gorging this lively mouthful, the active and dexterous little fisher-bird returned to his hazel bough looking quite as invalidish as before; but now I was aware of his intentions. “Natura est dux optima.”
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PHILALETHEIAN. The Kingfisher's Meal. Nature 2, 356 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002356e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002356e0
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