268 A Few Notes on Bird Life, &c. [Sess. 



pair of kingfishers, probably one pursuing the other, dashed 

 themselves against my dining-room window at Stoke. One 

 was picked up quite dead, and the other so completely stunned 

 as to be nearly incapable of moving or showing signs of life. 

 I laid him on the grass, and in about a quarter of an hour he 

 recovered sufficiently to fly away. They were both young 

 birds, but in very good plumage. A kingfisher once similarly 

 dashed itself against my dining-room window in Priory Eow " 

 — i.e., in the very centre of the town. " In each case there is 

 another window in the room, so that the birds would see the 

 daylight, and might suppose there was a passage through." I 

 well remember the incident in the town to which my friend 

 alludes, and that the bird recovered, and he carried it out of 

 the town and restored it to liberty. It adds somewhat to the 

 pleasure of our frequent rambles together along the river Sowe 

 in that neighbourhood, to know that we are certain to see one 

 or more of these splendid birds dart by us, or hover over the 

 stream in the bright sunshine. Kingfishers, I need scarcely 

 say, are rare in Scotland. I have seen only two in twenty- 

 three years — one between Eoslin and Polton, and another on 

 the Keltic, near Callander. Mr Speedy informs me that 

 two years ago a pair frequented the Pow burn, but were 

 cruelly shot, much to his regret and annoyance. 



In the winter of 1887-88 a few pheasants appeared fre- 

 quently in the garden at Stoke, and the gardener reported 

 that they had pecked up many crocus roots ; but we agreed 

 that a fine cock-pheasant strutting on the lawn was a beauti- 

 ful object to look upon, even if the crocuses were consequently 

 less numerous : so the birds were not scared, and some Indian 

 corn was scattered about, as being more attractive to them 

 than the bulbs, and a hen-pheasant evinced her confidence in 

 the protection afforded by hatching her young, last summer, 

 in the bank of the garden hedge, and I learn that the birds 

 were there again during last winter. 



We went occasionally for a few hours' fishing in the lake 

 in Combe Park. It is a large sheet of water, extending for 

 about half a mile from the Abbey walls, having the deer-park 

 on one side and plantations on the other ; and the bird life 

 there under strict protection is always interesting. There is a 

 heronry on an island, and I was glad to learn that the birds 



