No doubt you have heard that all birds are descended from reptile ancestors; that feathers are but modified scales, and that a bird's song is but the glorified hiss of the serpent. Then {210} the kingfisher and the bank swallow retain at least one ancient custom of their ancestors, for they still place their eggs in the ground. The lone fisherman chooses a mate early in the spring and, with her help, he tunnels a hole in a bank next a good fishing ground. A minnow pool furnishes the most-approved baby food. Perhaps the mates will work two or three weeks before they have tunnelled far enough to suit them and made a spacious nursery at the end of the long hall. Usually from five to eight white eggs are laid about six feet from the entrance on a bundle of grass, or perhaps on a heap of ejected fish bones and refuse. While his queen broods, the devoted kingfisher brings her the best of his catch. At first their babies are as bare and skinny as their cuckoo relatives. When the father or mother bird flies up stream with a fish for them, giving a rattling call instead of ringing a dinner bell, all the hungry youngsters rush forward to the mouth of the tunnel; but only one can be satisfied each trip. Then all run backward through the inclined tunnel, like reversible steam engines, and keep tightly huddled together until the next exciting rattle is heard. Both parents are always on guard to drive off mink, rats and water snakes that are the terrors of their nursery. [Illustration] Waiting for mamma and fish [Illustration] Young belted kingfisher on his favourite snag [Illustration] Kingfisher on the look-out for a dinner {211} CHAPTER XV DAY AND NIGHT ALLIES OF THE FARMER Turkey Vulture Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Cooper's Hawk Bald Eagle American Sparrow Hawk American Osprey American Barn Owl Short-eared Owl Long-eared Owl Barred Owl Screech Owl {212} {213} TURKEY VULTURE _Called also: Turkey Buzzard_