THE KINGFISHER. 37 



have the factor's authenticated report of five hundred 

 and forty-eight having been destroyed in three years ! " 

 <(Nat. Lib., vol. ii. pp. 70, 71.) The colour of the head 

 and back of neck is umber ; the wings, tail, and upper 

 parts of the body blackish-gray ; the throat, neck, and 

 breast white ; the belly chestnut, shading into a darker 

 colour on the flanks, and to blackish-gray on the vent 

 and under tail-covers; the legs and feet yellowish- 

 gray. In the female the white and chestnut are less 

 clear, and the gray edges of the feathers on the back 

 are clouded. The young have the head and neck 

 gray, the edges of the feathers being yellowish- white. 

 The throat and breast are dusky yellow, or grayish- 

 white, darker where the chestnut commences, but the 

 edges of the feathers pale, and in the throat and breast 

 the feathers are tipped with a narrow bar of blackish- 

 .gray, which gives a general dull- coloured appearance 

 to the bird. 



The only species of the family Alcedinida is 

 the Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida\ also the only example 

 of the order Fissirostres which can be called a 

 water-bird. From its brilliant colours and com- 

 parative scarcity it may be considered a feeble 

 connecting link between the birds of northern and 

 more brilliantly-coloured southern climes. It is 

 found in every country in Europe, It is much more 

 common in England than in Scotland. Its flight is 

 very rapid. Its favourite haunts are small streams 

 overhung by willows or other trees, from the boughs 

 of which it can sit watching the movements of the 

 minnows or sticklebacks, on which it principally 

 feeds. It eats, likewise, water molluscs, leeches, and 



