7% BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



August, and become more and more common on 

 our marsh- drains and water-courses up to the first 

 week in September, when they appear to attain their 

 maximum numbers. A very small proportion of 

 these remain in these localities throughout the 

 winter, the bulk departing with autumn storms and 

 floods. 



According to the late Mr. Wheelwright*, the King- 

 fisher has never been detected breeding in Scandi- 

 navia, although occasionally seen in the southern 

 provinces of Sweden, and is sparingly distributed 

 throughout Denmark. Consequently, if our autumn 

 birds are from the continent, they must come directly 

 across from the coast of Holland to the eastern dis- 

 tricts of Englandf. 



Kingfishers were more than usually abundant in the 

 marshes in the autumns of 1863 and 1869; and during 

 the former season great numbers were picked up dead 

 in the Lincolnshire fens J. 



* ' Ten years in Sweden/ page 281. 



+ Mr. Stevenson, in the 'Birds of Norfolk/ vol. i. p. 322, men- 

 tions the circumstance of a Kingfisher having dashed against 

 the Lemon floating light-ship, placed twenty miles at sea off 

 Winterton on the Norfolk coast. 



J The poor little Kingfisher was, as now, a persecuted bird 

 in times long gone by. From the Calendar of State Papers 

 [Domestic series], July 14, 1613, we find : Grant made to one 

 David Lewes, of Lincoln, of the office of Vermynter (Vermin- 

 taker) in England to destroy "Foxes, Grayes, Fichenos, Pole- 

 cats, Wissels, Stotes, Fares, Badgers, Wilde Cats, Otters, 

 Hedgehogges, Rattes, Mice, Moldewarpe or Waute, or other 



