CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 35 



was not retained; while the male, falling winged 

 among large stones, managed to make good his escape 

 into some hole before I could reach the spot. While 

 searching for him I stumbled on one of the best con- 

 cealed whisky stills I ever met with. It will certainly 

 be a particularly cute exciseman that discovers its 

 whereabouts without the help of previous information. 

 The male bird in the case was trapped at a nest in 

 Strathmore, in Caithness, in June, 1869, and the 

 female shot in Sutherland the previous month. 



KINGFISHER 

 Case 45. 



There is, unfortunately, a certain class of prowling 

 gunners who never can resist a shot at this beautiful 

 and harmless little bird ; beautiful it certainly is, 

 though its beauty departs with its life, as the effigies 

 one sees in the windows of the ordinary taxidermist 

 are only a caricature of the living bird. 



The Kingfisher is well known to anglers as a sociable 

 companion on the banks of the streams they both love 

 so well. 



During the autumn I have in days gone by often 

 noticed as many as forty or fifty of these birds fishing 

 in the channels among the mudbanks in the Nook at 

 Rye, in Sussex. They used to commence working 

 clown the creeks soon after the turn of the tide, and 

 closely following the falling water, they found abundant 

 food in the numerous shallow pools. About half-flood 

 they used generally to make a move, flying up the 

 creeks, and so on to the small drains that led through 

 the marshes, and then dispersing themselves over the 



D 2 



