30 



occasionally on the stubbles and turnip fields. On 

 the approach of winter they generally take up their 

 quarters on the mudbanks in some tidal harbour, 

 or on any extensive flats along the coast where 

 they are free from persecution. If not frequently 

 disturbed, they are by no means shy, but after a 

 few shots they become one of the most w r ary of 

 birds, their well-known cry serving as a signal of 

 danger to all the wildfowl within hearing distance. 



They are a first-rate bird for the table, 

 particularly when a few severe frosts have taken 

 down a little of the fat with which they are almost 

 covered when they first arrive on the mudbanks. 



I have once or twice observed small flocks of 

 young birds in the Nook, at Rye Harbour, in 

 Sussex, as early as July ; but this, I should 

 imagine, must be two or three months sooner than 

 they are usually found so far south. 



As will be seen by the specimens in the case, 

 the young, when first hatched, have only a short 

 bill like a Plover. 



The old birds with their brood were obtained 

 on the hills in Glenlyon, in Perthshire, in June, 

 1867. 



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 



