314 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



speaks of another as killed " lately' 5 at Yarmouth. 

 From that time, however, it does not appear to have been 

 noticed again in this county until the 3rd of June, 1854, 

 when a pair were shot at the same time on the Norwich 

 river, near Coldham-hall. These beautiful birds, now in 

 my possession, were shown to me in the flesh, and for 

 brilliancy of plumage I never saw finer specimens. Both 

 were in good condition ; and on dissecting the stomach 

 of the female I found the remains of no less than five 

 large insects of the Hymenopterous order, apparently a 

 species of wild or humble bee ; the stomach of the male 

 also contained similar debris, but less distinguishable. 

 The ovaries in the female appeared, on examination, not 

 to contain any eggs in a perceptibly advanced stage, 

 which might probably indicate that the bird had already 

 deposited her quota of eggs for the season, whilst the 

 thinness of feathers on the breast seemed suggestive 

 of her having been sitting. They were both killed by a 

 wherryman, who shot them from his craft as they were 

 playing over the river, but although I devoted a whole 

 day to the examination of the river's banks for a mile or 

 two above and below the point where they were killed, I 

 could find no trace of any probable nest-hole, nor were 

 the banks in that neighbourhood at all suited to their 

 purpose. 



ALCEDO ISPIDA, Linnaeus. 

 KINGFISHER. 



Next after the Roller and the Bee-eater, in the 

 arrangement of most of our British authors, comes our 

 native Kingfisher, whose brilliant plumage suffers no 

 depreciation in comparison even with those lovely 

 wanderers from the far south. Though associating only 

 in pairs, it is very generally distributed throughout 



