116 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
There is a specimen from Rostherne in a case of stuffed 
birds at Denfield Hall, and we have at different times 
seen examples from Dunham Park in the hands of 
local bird-stuffers. A few pairs nest every year at 
Somerford, and Mr. W. H. Peterkin has eggs in his 
collection which he took from a hole in a birch on 
Alderley Edge some years ago. 
Like the last species, the bird breeds in the wooded 
valley of the Goyt, where Oldham has seen its nesting- 
holes in a dead fir at Whaley Bridge. Mr. R. Nunnerley 
has two examples in his collection which he shot on 
different occasions at Sutton near Macclesfield. 
FAMILY ALCEDINIDA. 
KINGFISHER. 
ALCEDO ISPIDA, Linnzeus. 
In spite of the fatal briliancy of plumage, which 
makes it the coveted prize of every ‘moucher’ who 
owns a gun, and the fact that many are sacrificed in 
the interest of trout, the Kingfisher still holds its own 
on most of the Cheshire streams and meres. It nests 
sparingly throughout Wirral and the Plain and on the 
streams of the Eastern Hills. Mr. N. Neave has found 
the nest in a sandpit near Rainow, a quarter of a mile 
from the nearest water. In autumn and winter King- 
fishers often frequent the small marlpits in the fields, 
and ditches in such places as the water-meadows of the 
Mersey Valley. At this season of the year we have 
seen it on the tidal gutters of the Dee Marshes; and 
Mr. L. Jones has a specimen he shot on Hilbre Island. 
The note of the Kingfisher is heard to the best advan- 
tage when the birds are pairing. In Dunham Park, in 
