194 CERYLE RUDIS. — ALCEDO ISPIDA. 



CERYLE RUDIS (Limi^us). 

 PIED KINGFISHER. 



[§ 668. One. 



Mr. WoUey's notebook has no entry of this eg^.'\ 



[§ 669. O^zd-.— Egypt, 1862. From Mr. S. S. Allen. 



Mr. Allen has a note on the nest of this bird in ' The Ibis ' (18G2, p. 361).] 



[§ 670. Two.—km-Tm, Palestine, 21 May, 1864. From Mr. 

 Tristram's Collection. 



]Mr. Tristram's note is : — " From a nest of four eggs, slightly sat on, in tlie 

 bank side near Ain-Tin, Plain of Genuesaret, a few yards from the Lake."] 



ALCEDO ISPIDA, Linn^us. 

 KINGFISHER. 



<^ 671. Tivo. — Clifton, Nottingliamsliire, not later than 1843. 



I took these eggs in the back stream below Clifton. There were 

 seven or eight in the nest. In the Wollaton brook, where King- 

 fishers breed every year, the nest raay be found by observing on 

 the opposite bank some stake or root, the immediate vicinity of wliich 

 is white-washed with the dung of the birds, who always alight on it 

 before plunging into the hole, which is in the face of the (generally) 

 perpendicular bank of some nook of the river or of a small stream. 

 If the nest be taken a new hole is immediately commenced, often 

 within two or three inches of the old one. So far as my observation 

 goes, they always form their own hole, though it is generally sup- 

 posed they prefer one ready made. I can easily believe they some- 

 times occupy a deserted Sand-Martin's, but never a rat's, for the 

 nest is always at the extremity of the hole, and the entrance is in 

 the face of a perpendicular bank. One evening not long ago (January, 

 1844) a Kingfisher was caught in a Sparrow-net in the ivy on the 

 stable-wall here [Beeston] . 



