al 
si) 
TRELAND :—Roscommon. 
Any owner, occupier, or other person taking or destroying a Kingfisher’s eggs, penalty 
£1 for each egg. 
Wild Birds Act, 1896.—In addition to any penalty under the Act of 1880 the Court 
may now order any trap, net, snare, etc., used by the offender to be forfeited. 
This bird is protected throughout the whole year in the County of Middlesex. 
VII. Remarks. 
All birds have some more or less distinct peculiarities of plumage, voice, manner, or habit, 
by which, if we observe them closely, we come to know them well. It is for the brilliancy of 
its plumage that the Kingfisher is renowned. Many British birds have beautiful colours, but 
not one of them has plumage which is so bright as the Kingfisher’s, and which flashes so as 
the bird flies through the air. We have plenty of common birds of all sizes, from the cock 
pheasant to the tomtit, which look gay enough if we see them near and still, and yet we do 
not see their colours brightly as they fly ; but the Kingfisher’s plumage is so bright that the 
bird looks brilliant even as it passes on the wing, and, though its flight is swift, the very speed 
of it seems to make the colour flash the more. 
It is unreasonable enough that a bird which is so beautiful as it fies should be most 
often killed because of its beauty, but this is no doubt one cause why Kingfishers are so 
comparatively seldom seen. Any day and any walk is more interesting and more happy for 
having seen a Kingfisher, and if men were wise this should have led to the preservation of 
the birds. It has, on the contrary, hitherto led to their destruction. Meyer says of the 
plumage: ‘“ The Kingfisher surpasses all other British birds in the brilliancy and changeable- 
ness of its colouring, which varies with every change of position, from the most brilliant 
turquoise blue to the warmest green in the lighter parts of its plumage, and in the darker 
reflecting copper and gold. . . . . When dead and preserved for a cabinet its plumage 
has a dull bluish or muddy-green appearance, and the brilliant tints of life have vanished.” 
Another reason why Kingfishers are sometimes killed is that they eat small fish, 
including the young of trout and other fish, which are preserved and bred for sport, But 
there are more destructive enemies to these than Kingfishers, and if the other enemies are 
kept down I do not believe that the stock of fish in any river will be seriously affected by 
Kingfishers, and the sight of them certainly adds a great deal of beauty and interest to a 
day’s fishing. 
The Kingfisher nests in banks, in a hole either of its own or of some other creature’s 
making, and as the hole is of some depth it is generally impossible to see the eggs without 
digging them out and destroying the nest, which should never be done. The shell of the 
egg is white, but it is so transparent that the colour of the yolk shows through and 
gives it a delicate orange tinge. I only once saw a fresh egg, and that was under very 
exceptional circumstances. An old willow by the side of a stream had been blown 
down and lay prone, having lifted up a large piece of the bank with its roots: the willow 
still lives, and grass and weeds still grow on what was the surface and is now the front side 
