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resident, but it is no where common, and in north- 
ern parts is very rare. It inhabits the banks of 
clear rivers and brooks, preferring those that flow 
with an easy current, and whose beds are margined 
with willows, alders, or close bushes. It is 
usually seen perched upon a small bough over- 
hanging the stream, or taking its station on a 
stone, stump, or rail, from whence it darts upon the 
small fish and aquatic insects that form its food. 
These birds breed in the banks of the streams they 
haunt, either digging a hole themselves, or taking 
possession of that of a water-rat, which they after- 
wards enlarge to suit their convenience, the hole 
always being found in a sloping direction. The 
nest is composed of bones and other indigestible 
parts of their food, which they eject in small pel- 
lets by their mouth. Upon these they deposit 
their eggs, which are from five to eight in number, 
and of a transparent pinkish white. 
KINGFISHER, BELTED. 
Aucepo Aucyon, Wilson. 
Two individuals of this species were met with in 
Treland about the latter part of the year 1845, one 
in the county of Meath and the other in the county 
of Wicklow. This species of the Kingfisher, which 
