THE KINGFISHER., 



Alcedo ispida. 



ITHOUT doubt this^ is the 

 most brilliantly beautiful of 

 all Britisli__bircls ; in fact, it 

 can vie_in the brilliaiicy of 

 its i^lumage with most of 

 the much-admired, highly- 

 coloured, but generally song- 

 less foreign birds. It seems 

 to be a peculiarity of the bird- 

 world that the song dete- 

 riorates" in proportion to the 

 beauty of the plumage ; for 

 although the Kingfisher is 

 our most orientally-coloured 

 bird, its song is nothing to 

 speak of. 



Yet those who have seen 

 it skimming the river, flying 

 along like a streak of coloured 

 light, under the archways of 

 rivers and streams, with a 

 rapid, straight flight, can well 

 understand the reason of its 

 being classified among the 

 '' Haley onidae.^-' 



