A L CEDINID^— KINGFISHER. 



149 



beginning of April and departing in September. In some years it is 

 very scarce. In 1888, 

 I did not hear one near 

 Chelmsford. 



Round Orsett, Mr. Sac- 

 kett describes it as a com- 

 mon spring visitor, but 

 adds : "I do not think 

 that all we hear in the 

 early spring stay to breed, 

 as I have only taken two 

 clutches." King says (20) 

 in 1838, "This bird does 

 not appear plentiful in our 

 neighbourhood" (Sudbury), 

 but JVIr. Grubb says (39) it 

 " never fails to give tidings 

 of its arrival [there] about 

 the middle of April." Writ- 

 ing from Epping in 1832, 

 Henry Doubleday says ( I o), 

 " This bird, which used to 

 be heard a few years since 



,, J. .. . WRYNECK, 



in all directions, is now so 

 scarce that I have not heard more than three or four in the neighbourhood." 

 In the following year he says, " This bird appears to decrease in number every 

 year in the neighbourhood." Mr. Fitch has found nests several times in the Bird- 

 brook District, twice at Maldon, and twice at Ra3'leigh. 



Family ALCEDINID.^. 



Kingfisher : Alcedo ispida. 



A resident throughout the county, I believe, though nowhere 

 common. On the saltings round our coast, Mr. Fitch says it becomes 

 much more common during winter than it is in summer. 



Around Sudbury, King says 

 (20) that it was " not uncom- 

 mon," in 1838. The Rev. J. C. 

 Atkinson says (36. 98) : " In 

 my fishing and other excursions 

 in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, and 

 Herefordshire, I used to see 

 many pairs ; each, however, 

 domiciled at some distance from 

 its nearest neighbours. Mr. 

 Buxton says (47. 87) it is " not 

 unfrequently seen by the ponds 

 and streams in the Forest. The 



