ii8 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



the collection of Mr. G. A. Tern pier {ZooL, 



1889, p. 229). 

 One, out of six, seen at Delgany, Co. Wicklow, 



Nov. 2, 1892 {Zool, 1892, p. 428). 

 Three, near Milfordhaven, Pembrokeshire, 



May 13, 1896, Jide Captain F. Hughes, 



Government House, Devonport, May 16, 



1896. 

 One, seen at Haggerston Castle, Beal, North- 

 umberland, April 29, 1897 (C. J. Leyland, 



Field, May 8, 1897). 

 Two seen and one shot in Caithness, May 12, 



1897 (L. Dunbar, A7m. Scot. Nat. Hist., 



1897, and Ibis, 1898, p. 157). 



Fam. ALCEDINID^. 



KINGFISHER. Alcedo ispida, Linnaeus. PI. 14, figs. 

 2, 2a. Length, 7-5 in. ; bill, 1-5 in. ; wing, 3 in. 



This is Tennyson's "sea-blue bird of March" 

 {Zool, 1884, pp. 117, 197). 



Resident and generally distributed, migrating 

 to the coast at the approach of winter, when the 

 inland streams and marsh dykes become frozen, and 

 they are thus prevented from fishing. I have known 

 a Kingfisher to be caught in a lobster-pot into which, 

 when exposed at low tide, it had dived after a small 

 struggling fish. 



Kingfishers scoop out for themselves the holes 

 in which they nest, and lay their eggs on the bare 

 soil, not on fishbones as generally supposed ; these 

 are accumulated by degrees and by accident, not 



