28 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



beds of bulrushes, and when seen flying from the 

 spectator in a very strong light at a distance of 

 twenty or thirty yards its colour in appearance is 

 bright cerulian blue. It is a sunlight effect, but how 

 produced is a mystery to me. In the case of the two 

 green kingfishers I am inclined to think that the 

 yellow of that shining field of buttercups in some 

 way produced the illusion. 



Why are these exquisite birds so rare, even in 

 situations so favourable to them as the one I have 

 described t Are they killed by severe frosts i An 

 ornithological friend from Oxfordshire assures me 

 that it will take several favourable seasons to make 

 good the losses of the late terrible winter of 1891-2. 

 But this, as every ornithologist knows, is only a part 

 of the truth. The large number of stuffed king- 

 fishers under glass shades that one sees in houses of 

 all descriptions in town and country, but most 

 frequently in the parlours of country cottages and 

 inns, tell a melancholy story. Some time ago a 

 young man showed me three stuffed kingfishers in 

 a case, and informed me that he had shot them at 

 a place (which he named) quite close to London. 

 He said that these three birds were the last of their 

 kind ever seen there ; that he had gone week after 

 week and watched and waited, until one by one, 

 at long intervals, he had secured them all ; and that 

 two years had passed since the last one was killed, 



