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<h2> CHAPTER XXII. Some Feathered Diggers. </h2>
<p>Peter Rabbit scampered along down one bank of the Laughing Brook, eagerly
watching for a high, gravelly bank such as Grandfather Frog had said that
Rattles the Kingfisher likes to make his home in. If Peter had stopped to
do a little thinking, he would have known that he was simply wasting time.
You see, the Laughing Brook was flowing through the Green Meadows, so of
course there would be no high, gravelly bank, because the Green Meadows
are low. But Peter Rabbit, in his usual heedless way, did no thinking. He
had seen Rattles fly down the Laughing Brook, and so he had just taken it
for granted that the home of Rattles must be somewhere down there.</p>
<p>At last Peter reached the place where the Laughing Brook entered the Big
River. Of course he hadn't found the home of Rattles. But now he did find
something that for the time being made him quite forget Rattles and his
home. Just before it reached the Big River the Laughing Brook wound
through a swamp in which were many tall trees and a great number of young
trees. A great many big ferns grew there and were splendid to hide under.
Peter always did like that swamp.</p>
<p>He had stopped to rest in a clump of ferns when he was startled by seeing
a great bird alight in a tree just a little way from him. His first
thought was that it was a Hawk, so you can imagine how surprised and
pleased he was to discover that it was Mrs. Longlegs. Somehow Peter had
always thought of Longlegs the Blue Heron as never alighting anywhere
except on the ground. But here was Mrs. Longlegs in a tree. Having nothing
to fear, Peter crept out from his hiding place that he might see better.</p>
<p>In the tree in which Mrs. Longlegs was perched and just below her he saw a
little platform of sticks. He didn't suspect that it was a nest, because
it looked too rough and loosely put together to be a nest. Probably he
wouldn't have thought about it at all had not Mrs. Longlegs settled
herself on it right while Peter was watching. It didn't seem big enough or
strong enough to hold her, but it did.</p>
<p>"As I live," thought Peter, "I've found the nest of Longlegs! He and Mrs.
Longlegs may be good fishermen but they certainly are mighty poor
nest-builders. I don't see how under the sun Mrs. Longlegs ever gets on
and off that nest without kicking the eggs out."</p>
<p>Peter sat around for a while, but as he didn't care to let his presence be
known, and as there was no one to talk to, he presently made up his mind
that being so near the Big River he would go over there to see if Plunger
the Osprey was fishing again on this day.</p>
<p>When he reached the Big River, Plunger was not in sight. Peter was
disappointed. He had just about made up his mind to return the way he had
come, when from beyond the swamp, farther up the Big River, he heard the
harsh, rattling cry of Rattles the Kingfisher. It reminded him of what he
had come for, and he at once began to hurry in that direction.</p>
<p>Peter came out of the swamp on a little sandy beach. There he squatted for
a moment, blinking his eyes, for out there the sun was very bright. Then a
little way beyond him he discovered something that in his eager curiosity
made him quite forget that he was out in the open where it was anything
but safe for a Rabbit to be. What he saw was a high sandy bank. With a
hasty glance this way and that way to make sure that no enemy was in
sight, Peter scampered along the edge of the water till he was right at
the foot of that sandy bank. Then he squatted down and looked eagerly for
a hole such as he imagined Rattles the Kingfisher might make. Instead of
one hole he saw a lot of holes, but they were very small holes. He knew
right away that Rattles couldn't possibly get in or out of a single one of
those holes. In fact, those holes in the bank were no bigger than the
holes Downy the Woodpecker makes in trees. Peter couldn't imagine who or
what had made them.</p>
<p>As Peter sat there staring and wondering a trim little head appeared at
the entrance to one of those holes. It was a trim little head with a very
small bill and a snowy white throat. At first glance Peter thought it was
his old friend, Skimmer the Tree Swallow, and he was just on the point of
asking what under the sun Skimmer was doing in such a place as that, when
with a lively twitter of greeting the owner of that little hole in the
bank flew out and circled over Peter's head. It wasn't Skimmer at all. It
was Banker the Bank Swallow, own cousin to Skimmer the Tree Swallow. Peter
recognized him the instant he got a full view of him.</p>
<p>In the first place Banker was a little smaller than Skimmer. Then too, he
was not nearly so handsome. His back, instead of being that beautiful rich
steel-blue which makes Skimmer so handsome, was a sober grayish-brown. He
was a little darker on his wings and tail. His breast, instead of being
all snowy white, was crossed with a brownish band. His tail was more
nearly square across the end than is the case with other members of the
Swallow family.</p>
<p>"Wha—wha—what were you doing there?" stuttered Peter, his eyes
popping right out with curiosity and excitement.</p>
<p>"Why, that's my home," twittered Banker.</p>
<p>"Do—do—do you mean to say that you live in a hole in the
ground?" cried Peter.</p>
<p>"Certainly; why not?" twittered Banker as he snapped up a fly just over
Peter's head.</p>
<p>"I don't know any reason why you shouldn't," confessed Peter. "But somehow
it is hard for me to think of birds as living in holes in the ground. I've
only just found out that Rattles the Kingfisher does. But I didn't suppose
there were any others. Did you make that hole yourself, Banker?"</p>
<p>"Of course," replied Banker. "That is, I helped make it. Mrs. Banker did
her share. 'Way in at the end of it we've got the nicest little nest of
straw and feathers. What is more, we've got four white eggs in there, and
Mrs. Banker is sitting on them now."</p>
<p>By this time the air seemed to be full of Banker's friends, skimming and
circling this way and that, and going in and out of the little holes in
the bank.</p>
<p>"I am like my big cousin, Twitter the Purple Martin, fond of society,"
explained Banker. "We Bank Swallows like our homes close together. You
said that you had just learned that Rattles the Kingfisher has his home in
a bank. Do you know where it is?"</p>
<p>"No," replied Peter. "I was looking for it when I discovered your home.
Can you tell me where it is?"</p>
<p>"I'll do better than that;" replied Banker. "I'll show you where it is."</p>
<p>He darted some distance up along the bank and hovered for an instant close
to the top. Peter scampered over there and looked up. There, just a few
inches below the top, was another hole, a very much larger hole than those
he had just left. As he was staring up at it a head with a long sharp bill
and a crest which looked as if all the feathers on the top of his head had
been brushed the wrong way, was thrust out. It was Rattles himself. He
didn't seem at all glad to see Peter. In fact, he came out and darted at
Peter angrily. Peter didn't wait to feel that sharp dagger-like bill. He
took to his heels. He had seen what he started out to find and he was
quite content to go home.</p>
<p>Peter took a short cut across the Green Meadows. It took him past a
certain tall, dead tree. A sharp cry of "Kill-ee, kill-ee, kill-ee!"
caused Peter to look up just in time to see a trim, handsome bird whose
body was about the size of Sammy Jay's but whose longer wings and longer
tail made him look bigger. One glance was enough to tell Peter that this
was a member of the Hawk family, the smallest of the family. It was Killy
the Sparrow Hawk. He is too small for Peter to fear him, so now Peter was
possessed of nothing more than a very lively curiosity, and sat up to
watch.</p>
<p>Out over the meadow grass Killy sailed. Suddenly, with beating wings, he
kept himself in one place in the air and then dropped down into the grass.
He was up again in an instant, and Peter could see that he had a fat
grasshopper in his claws. Back to the top of the tall, dead tree he flew
and there ate the grasshopper. When it was finished he sat up straight and
still, so still that he seemed a part of the tree itself. With those
wonderful eyes of his he was watching for another grasshopper or for a
careless Meadow Mouse.</p>
<p>Very trim and handsome was Killy. His back was reddish-brown crossed by
bars of black. His tail was reddish-brown with a band of black near its
end and a white tip. His wings were slaty-blue with little bars of black,
the longest feathers leaving white bars. Underneath he was a beautiful
buff, spotted with black. His head was bluish with a reddish patch right
on top. Before and behind each ear was a black mark. His rather short
bill, like the bills of all the rest of his family, was hooked.</p>
<p>As Peter sat there admiring Killy, for he was handsome enough for any one
to admire, he noticed for the first time a hole high up in the trunk of
the tree, such a hole as Yellow Wing the Flicker might have made and
probably did make. Right away Peter remembered what Jenny Wren had told
him about Killy's making his nest in just such a hole. "I wonder," thought
Peter, "if that is Killy's home."</p>
<p>Just then Killy flew over and dropped in the grass just in front of Peter,
where he caught another fat grasshopper. "Is that your home up there?"
asked Peter hastily.</p>
<p>"It certainly is, Peter," replied Killy. "This is the third summer Mrs.
Killy and I have had our home there."</p>
<p>"You seem to be very fond of grasshoppers," Peter ventured.</p>
<p>"I am," replied Killy. "They are very fine eating when one can get enough
of them."</p>
<p>"Are they the only kind of food you eat?" ventured Peter.</p>
<p>Killy laughed. It was a shrill laugh. "I should say not," said he. "I eat
spiders and worms and all sorts of insects big enough to give a fellow a
decent bite. But for real good eating give me a fat Meadow Mouse. I don't
object to a Sparrow or some other small bird now and then, especially when
I have a family of hungry youngsters to feed. But take it the season
through, I live mostly on grasshoppers and insects and Meadow Mice. I do a
lot of good in this world, I'd have you know."</p>
<p>Peter said that he supposed that this was so, but all the time he kept
thinking what a pity it was that Killy ever killed his feathered
neighbors. As soon as he conveniently could he politely bade Killy good-by
and hurried home to the dear Old Briar-patch, there to think over how
queer it seemed that a member of the hawk family should nest in a hollow
tree and a member of the Swallow family should dig a hole in the ground.</p>
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