68 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARV 



Range in Great Britain. Universally distributed, but rarer in 

 the north of Scotland. To a great extent migratory, though 

 many individuals remain throughout the year. 



Kange outside the British Islands. Found throughout the greater 

 part of Europe, but not extending to the northern portions of 

 the Continent. Thus it is only an accidental visitor to Den- 

 mark and Southern Scandinavia, and extends rarely as far north 

 as St. Petersburg. In India and China a smaller race occurs, 

 of a more vivid blue colour, but the Kingfishers of Egypt, 

 Central Asia, and Sind are perfectly intermediate in colour and 

 size, and it is impossible to recognise the eastern race (Alcedo 

 bengalensis] as distinct, and therefore we may consider the 

 Common Kingfisher as an inhabitant of the Palasarctic and 

 Indian Regions, merely noting that in its eastern habitat the 

 bird is rather smaller and more highly coloured. The King- 

 fishers which leave England in the autumn do not apparently 

 travel farther south than the Mediterranean countries, and even 

 here the species is said to be resident, and to nest regularly in 

 small numbers. 



Habits. The protection from shooting, which has of late 

 years been afforded to our beautiful Kingfisher on the Thames, 

 has certainly contributed to an increase in the number of the 

 species, and its bright plumage may now be seen at almost 

 any time of the year. It is unnecessary to add that the beauty 

 of the river scenery is much enhanced by the presence of 

 such a pretty bird as the Kingfisher, whose beauty might be 

 allowed to atone for any delinquencies in the way of catching 

 small trout. 



The flight of a Kingfisher is usually advertised by its note 

 which is a peculiarly shrill dissyllabic one a kind of " h'wee 

 h'wee " uttered as the bird flies along at a prodigious rate, 

 with a rapid beating of his powerful rounded wings, the bill 

 being held straight out. It by no means follows, however, that 

 the bird is flying over the water all the way, for, as often as not, 

 the Kingfisher rises to a considerable height and takes a swift 

 turn through a portion of the woods or across a meadow, rejoin- 

 ing the stream a little farther on. It is a quarrelsome species, 

 and jealous of intruders, so that a chase often takes place, if 

 another Kingfisher should happen to interfere with the fishing- 





