THE KINGFISHER. 171 



variably returns uninjured, and prepares to take 

 another dip. 



There are people who imagine that the brilliancy 

 of the plumage of birds has some connection with a 

 tropical sun. Here, however, in our own native 

 bird, we have an instance that the glowing sun of 

 the tropics is not required to produce a splendid 

 plumage. The hottest parts of Asia and of Africa 

 do not present us with an azure more rich and lovely 

 than that which adorns the back of this charming 

 little bird; while throughout the whole of America, 

 from Hudson's Bay to Tierra del Fuego, there has 

 not been discovered a kingfisher with colours half 

 so rich or beautiful. Asia, Africa, and America 

 offer to the naturalist a vast abundance of different 

 species of the kingfisher. Europe presents only 

 one ; but that one is like a gem of the finest lustre. 



I feel sorry to add that our kingfisher is becoming 

 scarcer every year in this part of Yorkshire. The 

 proprietors of museums are always anxious to add 

 it to their collections, and offer a tempting price 

 for it. On the canals, too, it undergoes a continual 

 persecution : not a waterman steers his boat along 

 them, but who has his gun ready to procure the 

 kingfisher. If I may judge from the disappearance 

 of the kite, the raven, and the buzzard from this 

 part of the country, I should say that the day is at 

 no great distance when the kingfisher will be seen 

 no more in this neighbourhood, where once it was 

 so plentiful and its appearance so grateful to every 

 lover of animated nature. Where, in fine, its sin- 



