SLAUGHTER OF KINGFISHERS 125 



And these are birds which we can but ill afford 

 to lose. In the neighbourhood of my home they 

 are plentiful, and I have no anxiety regarding 

 their welfare, as our little river never freezes, and 

 they are thus able to support themselves. It is 

 rather in the larger and more sluggish streams 

 of the Midland counties that these birds will, I 

 fear, suffer most severely. 



I cannot forbear quoting the following article, 

 which appears in the Oxford Journal of yesterday's 

 date (February 16, 1895) : 



' We regret very much to learn that in some 

 parts of this county a war of extermination is 

 being waged against the kingfisher, the most 

 beautiful, without exception, of any of our birds, 

 A very short time ago a well-known Fellow of 

 Oriel had two live kingfishers offered him for 

 sale ; they had been caught in nets in the Ott- 

 moor district, and the story was that an Oxford 

 bird-stuffer would give eighteenpence apiece for 

 them. One of the children of the Oriel Fellow 

 insisted on her father buying the birds as a birthday 

 present for herself, in order that she might have 

 the happiness of releasing them. But we have 

 a much sadder story of the kingfishers to tell 

 than that, for we fear it is too true that in the 

 neighbourhood of Adderbury scores have been 

 ruthlessly killed under the ridiculous pretext of 

 preserving a trout stream. We have it on very 

 good authority that a so-called sportsman, or his 

 keeper, has destroyed this season no fewer than 



