THE KINGFISHER 
ALCEDO ISPIDA 
Loca. names in surrounding counties : 
Status IN British Avirauna: A widely distributed 
if local resident, but has been more or less exterminated 
in many localities. 
RapiAL DisTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s : The Kingfisher is occasionally seen on the Thames 
from Battersea upwards, and it also frequents the Wandle, 
Beverley, Brent, Colne, and Lea, as well as the Paddington 
Canal, at no great distance from the central portions of 
our radius, besides paying irregular visits to various minor 
streams, watercress-beds, sewage-farms, and open sheets 
of water, even as centrally situated as Kensington Gar- 
dens. An odd example was once captured at Camden 
Town. It is, however, a very local species, nowhere 
numerous, and its breeding-places are few and far be- 
tween. In some localities the bird has almost been 
exterminated, or is rapidly decreasing in numbers; in 
others, I am pleased to record, it is certainly on the 
increase, and a strict enforcement of the law which gives 
it protection in the London suburbs should enable it to 
become a yet commoner bird. It seems a pity even to 
indicate the approximate breeding range of the King- 
fisher round London, even so far as it is known to myself 
and several valued correspondents, so I refrain from 
doing so. I know only too well how the bird is hunted 
near London, and quite recently an instance of this came 
to my knowledge from the Brent district, near Wembley, 
where a nest was wantonly destroyed, and the birds have 
quite deserted the place. ‘There are still Kingfishers close 
to London City; greater publicity would only tend to 
disturb them. 
The Kingfisher, the most brightly coloured British 
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