This self-appointed guardian of our streams and lakes is clad in a suit of gendarme blue. He wears a sharp two-edged sword in his cap, and carries a rattle in his throat.

He is a perfect example of “Watchful Waiting,” as he sits motionless on a bough overhanging a stream, with his fierce eyes fixed intently upon the waters beneath him. When an unwary fish swims by, this blue-coat plunges after it and spears it with deadly accuracy. If small, the fish is swallowed whole; if large, it is beaten to death against a tree, and devoured with difficulty. When fish are not obtainable, the kingfisher will eat frogs and crustaceans, and sometimes grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles. Fish, however, are his favorite food.[86]

The nest is as unusual and interesting as the bird himself. It consists of a tunnel excavated in a bank by the long knife-shaped bills of the kingfisher and his mate. A cavity of good size must be hollowed out to accommodate so large a bird and a family of from five to eight lusty youngsters. They are lively and quarrelsome; they set up a great clamor when Father or Mother arrives with an already-prepared fish-dinner. Dr. Francis H. Herrick, in his delightful book, “The Home Life of Wild Birds,” tells of his observations of a kingfisher’s nest and nesting habits as follows: “The nest had a 4 inch bore; 4 feet from the opening was a vaulted chamber 6 inches high and 10 inches across....”

A series of rattles announced the approach of the parent bird “who came at full tilt with a fish in her bill, making the earth resound.” In response came “muffled rattles of five young kingfishers, who issued from their subterranean abode.... With a rattle in shrillest crescendo, she bolted right into the hole, delivered the fish, remained for half a minute, then came out backwards, turning in the air as she dropped from the entrance, and with a parting rattle was off to the river.”

There were five babies in what Dr. Herrick called the “King Row.” They were amusing to look at as they sat back on their legs; the bill of one nestling protruded above the shoulder of the bird in front of it. They never seized their food (fish) of their own accord. “It was necessary to open their bills and press the food well down into the distensible throats.” Raw meat was rejected, but they throve on fish. “Kingfishers’ throats are lined with inwardly projecting papillae so that when a fish is once taken in its throat, it is impossible for it to escape.”[87]

The young kingfishers that Dr. Herrick observed became very tame. He is pictured with them on his hand, his shoulder, and on both knees.

While kingfishers do less good than most of our feathered benefactors, they do not destroy enough fish to be a detriment to the fishing interests of lakes and streams. They are true sportsmen, whose presence we should miss when we followed the rod and creel. We are forced to respect their prowess, and we may apostrophize them in the words of Izaac Walton: “Angling is an Art, and you know that Art better than others; and that this is the truth is demonstrated by the fruits of that pleasant labor which you enjoy.”