The Zoologist— May, 1873. 3527 



On the Coloar of the Fauces in Nestling Warblers. — Herbert, in his 

 notes to 'White's Selborne' (Rennie's ed. p. 129, Bennett's ed. p. 177), 

 says: — "In all true Currucae, which live mainly on vegetable food, the 

 inside of the mouth and throat is of a fine red : in the others of a yellow- 

 orange." I should be very glad if any of your readers would record their 

 observations on this point during the coming season, as I have now-a-days 

 few opportunities of birds' nesting, and I cannot trust my memory in suclr 

 a case. Signer Bettoni, I may remark, in his recent and great work on the 

 birds of Lombardy, figures the blackcap with ^mk fauces, the garden warbler 

 with buff, the orphean warbler and greater whitethroat with yellow. Mr. 

 Blyth forty years ago quoted Herbert's note (' Field Naturalist,' i. p. 307), 

 with seeming approval, objecting only in the case of the garden warbler ; 

 but the evidence of Signor Bettoni rather contradicts the general assertion 

 of Herbert. — Alfred Neivton ; Magdalene College, Cambridge, AprillO, 1873. 



Kidification of the Kingfisher. — So few- instances of the kingfisher nesting 

 away from the neighbourhood of water having been recorded, the particulars 

 of a nest found by me yesterday between here and Aldenham may perhaps 

 be interesting. The handful of fish-bones, on which the six eggs were 

 placed, was at the end of a hole (sloping slightly upwards from the entrance) 

 in the side of an old unused gravel-pit, about two feet from the top of the 

 bank, and just at the bottom of the stratum of clay. The hole, about eighteen 

 inches deep, was the only one in the pit, and must, I think, have been dug 

 by the birds themselves. The nearest water (except small farm-ponds) would 

 be the Eiver Colne on the one side and Elstree Reservoir on the other ; the 

 former must be at least a mile distant in a straight line, and the latter about 

 two miles and a half. Finding a broken white egg at the bottom of the gravel- 

 pit led me to discover the nest. — C. Bygrave Wharton ; April 13, 1872. 



Feeding Habits of the Belted Ringiisher. — On page 48 of Mr. Darwin's 

 'Expression of the Emotions,' I find the assertion, " Kingfishers when they 

 catch a fish always beat it until it is killed." We have, in New Jersey, one 

 species of kingfisher, the Ceryle Alcyou, which is exceedingly abundant for 

 about seven months in the year. For several years I have observed them 

 carefully, both feeding and breeding about the banks of Crossweeksen Creek, 

 and I feel certain that T am correct in saying that I have never seen a king- 

 fisher take its food otherwise than by swallowing it whole, while yet upon 

 the wing. The fish having been swallowed, or at least having dis- 

 appeared, the kingfisher will alight upon the branch of a tree, and will then, 

 frequently, stretch out its neck, and go through a " gulping motion," as 

 though the fish was not entirely in the bird's stomach, or perhaps was only 

 in its oesophagus. In the thousands of instances that I have witnessed 

 of these birds catching small fish, I never once saw a fish taken from the 

 water and killed before being devoured. So far as my recollection serves 

 me, in the large majority of instances, the kingfisher, after darting into the 



