BELTED KINGFISHER. 453 



Ireland about the same time. The first was shot by Mr. 

 F. A. Smith at Annsbrook in Meath, October 26th, 1845 ; 

 and the second, which was seen some days before November 

 20th of the same year by the gamekeeper of Mr. Latouche, 

 of Luggela in the county of Wicklow, was shortly afterwards 

 shot, according to Mr. Walters, by Mr. J. C. Campion. 

 This last came into the possession of the late Mr. T. W. 

 Warren, and was by him left to the Museum of Science and 

 Art in Dublin : the other, believed to have been a female, 

 was bought for that of Trinity College in the same capital.* 

 This Kingfisher, a native of North America, is not known 

 to have been elsewhere observed in Europe, and its claim to 

 be accounted a British Bird is so slight as to justify here 

 but a brief notice of it. That it should be able to cross the 

 Atlantic is not surprising, when its wide range in its own 

 country and its long migratory flights are considered. Its 

 habits have been described at great length by American 

 ornithologists, and though some details given by Wilson, 

 Audubon and Nuttall have been recently disputed, yet the 

 general truth of their statements seems to be untouched, 

 while some of the discrepancies between their accounts and 

 those of later observers are explained by the often overlooked 

 fact that the habits of almost any bird vary more or less 

 according to season or locality. With certain differences, to 

 be presently noticed, the behaviour of this species is nearly 

 identical with that of our own. In summer it is found 

 throughout North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 and northwards to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, hardly a 

 river or creek, lake or pond being free from its presence. In 

 winter it is forced to the southwards, as the waters it 

 frequents are successively frozen, though even in New 

 England, to say nothing of parts of the Dominion of Canada, 

 a few seem to maintain their position, especially in open 

 seasons. But towards autumn the majority unquestionably 



* Mr. Morris, on the information of Mr. G. Grantham, states that a third 

 afterwards occurred to a friend of his near Bantry Bay, and also, though with 

 some doubt, that a fourth was said to have been obtained near Dublin. In each, 

 of these cases confirmation, by some recognized authority, would be desirable 

 before accepting the information. 



