THE ZooLoGist—J UNE, 1872. 3087 
aid, and accomplish with her long slender bill what he had failed to do. I 
noticed, however, that the female always appropriated to her own use the 
morsels thus obtained.”"—P. 64. 
The only other extract I will make is from the description of the 
kingfisher. It contains a vast amount of the soundest Natural 
History teaching, and seems to combine in an eminent degree the 
new with the true. It is peculiarly gratifying to myself to have 
this evidence of the kingfisher’s omnivorous appetite, of its acci- 
petrine propensities, and of its capability of boring a tree for 
nesting purposes. All these accounts, these traits of character, 
enlarge the boundaries of our knowledge and teach us the danger 
of generalizing on imperfect or insufficient data. It is extremely 
amusing also to learn of the existence of Associations for destroying 
kingfishers because they interfere with the desired increase of 
sparrows ; just as in Scotland the edict went forth for the destruction 
of hawks and eagles because they interfered with the increase of 
grouse and wood pigeons. The Scotch succeeded to admiration: 
1 now receive similar appeals for assistance in the crusade against 
wood pigeons and sparrows. 
“The flight of this species is short, rapid and direct, being performed by 
a quick vibration of the wings. It flies with considerable velocity, and I 
have known several instances of its dashing headlong through a pane of 
glass. On one occasion this occurred in the church at Raglan during 
divine service, and the kingfisher, after recovering from the shock, remained 
to the last perched on the end of a pew, looking more devout, says our 
correspondent, than the jackdaw of Rheims! Another instance occurred 
more recently at Wanganui, where, according to a local paper, the family of 
the Rev. C. H. 8. Nicholls were startled one day at dinner by the entrance 
of a kingfisher which ‘ flew through a pane of glass in one of the windows, 
scattering the fragments around,’ and was forthwith made prisoner by the 
household cat. Its food consists of lizards, small fish, grubs, earth-worms, 
locusts, insects of all kinds, and even mice. On examining a young king- 
fisher just taken from the nest, 1 observed the tail of a half-grown mouse 
protruding from its bill, and on taking hold of it I drew the unmutilated 
carcase of the rodent from the throat of the bird. I was not previously 
aware that mice formed part of the kingfisher’s bill of fare. I have often, 
however, witnessed its fondness for lizards, two species of which (Mocoa 
Zelandica and M. ornata) are very common in all the open glades. I have 
seen it seize the nimble little reptile by the tail, and after battering its head 
against a stone or the branch of a tree, to destroy life, swallow the captive 
head foremost. It has been known to attack and kill chickens in the 
