PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 447 



as the Kazan, Jaroslav, and Pskov government*. To the south it ranges to the 

 Mediterranean, and a local race IB said to be resident in North-western Africa, 

 while another small form replaces it in Asia and the Malay Archipelago; but 

 apparently it is the European form, A. ijtpida itpida, Linnaeus, which is found 

 in Western Siberia, [r. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Chiefly a resident, but said also to be a winter visitor. 

 Although quite resident within our area, our breeding kingfishers are subject to 

 considerable local wanderings, which vary in extent with the severity of the winter. 

 No definite general direction has been noticed in these movements, the birds appar- 

 ently merely seeking the most convenient tidal waters when the inland streams are 

 ice-bound. Thus in Ireland it is said that " when the breeding season is over the 

 kingfisher wanders very much, especially in frosts, when it betakes itself to tidal 

 estuaries " (Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1000, pp. 109-110). But it seldom 

 wanders far from land, if we may judge from the scarcity of records from outlying 

 islands or light-stations. Again, we are told that in Kent the birds concentrate 

 on the coast in September and October, returning to the inland parts of the county 

 early in March ; but in addition to this "it is probably true that in unusually severe 

 winters a certain number of birds make their way to the Kent coast marshes from 

 other inland counties, but this is quite exceptional " (Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, 

 pp. 236-38). It is claimed that the kingfisher is also something of a winter visitor 

 to our area, arriving on the coast of Yorkshire in autumn in varying numbers ; 

 and in one particular case that is cited, on account of the earliness of the date, 

 4th July (1905), the bird is described as being seen two miles from shore, and coming 

 from the north-east (cf. Nelson, B. of York., 1907, p. 280). As may be seen from 

 the preceding paragraph, the kingfisher is very rarely found breeding in Denmark, 

 Scandinavia, or Northern Russia ; and it is nowhere known to be much addicted 

 to migration ; it is, for instance, of very rare occurrence on Heligoland (cf. Gitke, 

 VogelwarU Helgoland, Eng. trans., 1895, p. 420). These facts lead us to doubt 

 that any large proportion of the kingfishers found on the Yorkshire coast in winter 

 can really be of overseas origin. [A. L. T. ] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nesting-site is generally in the steep bank of a 

 stream, though sometimes, where suitable sites are rare, it will excavate its burrow 

 at a considerable distance from water in a dry ditch or gravel-pit. In has also 

 been known to breed among the roots of trees by the waterside, in holes in walls, 

 and in the stonework of a bridge over a river (O. Grabham, Field, June 7, 1902). 

 The burrow is generally about 3 feet or rather less in length, with a circular chamber 



