124 



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 overhanging 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 posses- 

 sion of that of a water-rat, which they afterwards 

 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 pellets by 

 their mouth. Upon these they deposit their eggs ? 

 which are from five to eight in number, and of a 

 transparent pinkish white. 



KINGFISHEK, BELTED. 



ALCEDO ALCYON, Wilson. 



Two individuals of this species were met with in 

 Ireland 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 



