174 THE BIRDS OF COOKHAM AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
one, where it would settle next, and have proved this to my 
friends on several occasions. It is a quarrelsome bird, for if 
one Kingfisher intrudes on the hunting ground of another, or 
comes near the spot where one is already seated, the latter 
darts at the intruder, and then ensues a loud screaming, one 
chasing the other round and round, until it has driven the 
stranger off, when it settles again, and resumes its former 
perch. At these times the rate at which they fly is prodigious, 
and I think, for a small distance, for it is by no means a bird 
of long flight, the Kingfisher is the swiftest flying bird in 
existence. When fairly settled on a post, it sits ‘all of a 
heap,” occasionally jerking its head up and down on its 
shoulders like Hawks do; and so intent does the bird become 
on the pursuit of its prey, that it can often be surprised by 
any one walking along the bank of a stream. I know 
two instances within the last few years of the Kingfishers 
falling victims to cats; for the finest specimen I ever saw was 
captured by a cat on Mr. Charles Venables’ grounds at Taplow, 
while Stanniforth, who has been already mentioned in the 
account of the Osprey, had another, caught by his own cat 
near Cookham Lock. The Kingfisher does not always breed 
in the banks of a river, the enormous increase of rats having, 
no doubt, contributed to thin their numbers and drive them 
away. <A pair built in a bank in Mr. Goulkden’s garden at 
Maidenhead, last year, although there was no water near. 
The brood was hatched, but the young birds were devoured 
by a cat or by rats. The bones composing the nest can even 
now be taken out with the hand. Mr. Briggs tells me that 
he has met with several instances of the breeding of this 
species away from the water, a pair having reared their young 
in a chalk pit at Taplow Court, for several successive years; 
while at Billing-bear he found a pair breeding in a gravel pit, 
the nearest stream being four miles off, and no water near 
the place except a tiny rivulet, containing a scanty supply of 
sticklebacks. Lately, some correspondent in Zand and Water 
called attention to the fact of this species breeding away from 
