802 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



glances in the sunshine, as it flits from place to 

 place, or as from overhanging branch it dives for 

 its finny prey ! The pity is that a bird so rich in 

 colour, and so interesting in its habits, should not 

 be so numerous as to be a constant ornament of 

 our streams. Its beauty, however, prevents this. 

 No sooner does a fisher report that he has seen the 

 bird, than on the following Saturday a dozen men with 

 guns are in search of it ; and the search is continued, 

 Saturday after Saturday, till the beautiful bird is 

 sacrificed. This has already occurred twice at Kil- 

 marnock during the last winter. 



Yet the Wild Birds Protection Act, if properly 

 enforced, would do much to preserve the Kingfisher. 

 This is apparent from the fact that during the 

 earlier years after the Act was passed, and when 

 instructions had been given to the police in all 

 directions to look to its observance, the Kingfisher 

 so increased in our neighbourhood that one person 

 (the late Mr. Oliver Eaton) knew of five nests in 

 the course of a single season. Alas ! matters 

 now are almost as bad as ever. Eggs and young 

 birds are taken, the old ones shot, even in violation 

 of the Act, and the Kingfisher has become as rare 

 by our streams as it w r as before. It would be well 

 if steps were taken for the vigorous enforcement of 

 the Act ; and if the Act were supplemented so as to 

 prohibit, under a smart fine, this bird being shot, 

 stuffed, or possessed at any season, except by public 

 scientific institutions, then might we hope that 

 our superb Kingfisher would become as numerous 

 as I saw its far less brilliant representative, the 

 Belted Kingfisher (Alcedo Alcyon), at Paget Sound, 

 in the State of Washington, when I visited America 

 last summer. 



