476 Mr. D. A. Bannerman on the [Ibis, 



time to time. I lean strongly to tlie latter view, as will be 

 seen from tlie heading 1 have employed. 



In the days when Berthelot and Bolle wrote on the birds 

 of these islands (1841-1857), the Kingfisher w:is evidently 

 an occasional visitor. I doul)t its ever having been a resident 

 species in any of the islands. 



Webb and Berthelot include it in their ' Ornithologie 

 Canarienne/ p. 25, giving as its "Habitat" in the Archi- 

 pelago " La region maritime, dans toutes les iles.'" 



Bolle notes (J. f. 0. 1854, p. 461), " A rather rare resident 

 bird in the barraneos of the warm coast region'''; but in 

 his later paper (J. f. O. 1857, p. 319) modifies this assertion 

 and remarks : " According to my own and Berthelot's ex- 

 perience the Kingfisher breeds nowhere in the Canary 

 Islands. It appears now and again only. The want of 

 river fish, with the exception of an eel, and the periodical 

 drying up of the streams in summer easily explains its 

 absence.^' • 



The last record is given by Godman, who in the year 

 1871 '' saw it once or twice near the Port of Orotava in 

 Tenerife in the middle of April" (Ibis, 1872, p. 169). 



Cabrera notes that the Kingfisher has been recorded from 

 Tenerife and Palma by Berthelot, Godman, and Busto, but 

 he never observed the bird himself (Catalogo, p. 38). 



Meade- Waldo did not include it in his list (Ibis, 1893), 

 and. ill later years Polatzek failed to gain any information 

 respecting it, nor did he ever see it (Orn. Jahrb. 1909, 

 p. 121j. 



It would therefore seem tliat the Kingfisher has gradually 

 disappeared from the islands. It may, and probably does, 

 turn up at rare intervals, but its visits to the Archipelago 

 are certainly becoming less frequent. 



Range. Alcedo i. pallida inhabits Morocco, Algeria, 

 Tunisia, and Egypt. A. i. ispida inhabits the greater 

 part of Europe from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean 

 region. 



