Strange Accidents to Wild Birds 



Booth, of Brighton Dyke Road Museum fame, 

 describes a very peculiar accident to a bird of this 

 species : " Whilst snipe-shooting one winter round 

 Hickling Broad, in Norfolk, I noticed some small object 

 splashing in the water at the side of a dyke, and pro- 

 ceeding to the spot I discovered an unfortunate king- 

 fisher that had come to grief in a rather singular 

 manner. The bird had evidently at some former time 

 been struck by a shot which had passed through the 

 upper mandible. This wound was quite healed up, but 

 a small piece of horny substance of the beak had been 

 splintered, and into the crack produced by the fracture 

 two or three of the fine fibres, which form part of the 

 flowers or seeds of the reed, were so firmly fixed that 

 the bird was held fast. It must have been flying up the 

 dyke and brushing too closely to the reeds that grow 

 on the banks, have been caught in the manner 

 described." 



It appears somewhat paradoxical to write of ducks 

 drowning ; nevertheless, I have witnessed an accident of 

 this kind in a rough mountain torrent, and once 

 watched a number of young ones dive beneath the sur- 

 face of a Shetland loch and perish miserably in tangled 

 masses of aquatic weeds. 



Whilst taking a walk on the banks of a crystal clear, 

 alder-fringed stream one morning, I saw a moorhen dive 

 into a pool and make its way up-stream like a miniature 

 submarine. Taking refuge in some fine trailing rootlets 

 that swung gently to and fro in the current like a horse's 

 tail in a breeze of wind, it remained there, and I took 



