5082 THE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1876. 
kept was put into a cage, which was often placed out of doors in the day- 
time. After two or three days we began to allow it the use of a bath-room 
for the greater part of the day, so that it might learn to fly, which it did at 
once: when brought to us it did not fly more than half-a-yard, and then 
only in a downward direction. During the first week of its captivity we fed 
the kingfisher with six to twelve minnows and sticklebacks each day; we 
gave them to it head foremost, so that the fins might not stick in its throat ; 
it always kept them in its bill for a short time, and then bolted them 
suddenly. When it began to take the minnows off our hands it always got 
them in its bill crosswise, where it held and shook them before swallowing 
them; from this time onwards it ate every day about two dozen minnows 
and sticklebacks, and occasionally a young gudgeon. It had been in our 
possession for a fortnight when we first saw it fishing for itself, but we 
believe it helped itself for two or three days before it was noticed doing so, 
because it was often not at all hungry when we went to give it a meal. 
While it was unable to feed itself we occasionally gave it dead fish, which it 
swallowed as readily as living ones: it always swallowed the latter without 
killing them, although it shook and squeezed them, and frequently made 
them bleed. In the bath-room where the kingfisher lives we keep a stock 
of minnows, &c., in a large earthenware basin ; until lately we several times 
a-day put some of them out into a saucer, from which it took them, but now 
it fishes in the large basin. It is very interesting, and has given pleasure 
to many of our friends to watch the kingfisher perched on the edge of the 
basin, intently looking down into the water until a minnow comes within 
its reach, when it darts at and seizes it with its bill, without wetting its 
feathers. The castings or pellets cast up by the kingfisher vary considerably ; 
some are pure white, and remind one of very fine crystals, and others are 
different shades of drab or gray; they are composed, I believe, entirely of 
fish-bones, and are about half-an-inch long, and oval ; I believe they are cast 
up at different times of the day, and the average number produced is about 
one per day. I have not yet heard the usual note of the adult bird uttered 
by this young kingfisher; it has a kind of whistling chirp much less shrill 
and loud than the old bird's. Its plumage is as brilliant as that of the king- 
fisher at any age, but I do not know whether it is a male or female: I suspect 
it is a male from the length of its bill (one inch and three-quarters to one 
inch and seven-eighths), which probably is not yet full grown. It is stated 
by Montagu that the bill of the male is two inches long; he does not give 
the length of the female’s, but says it is “ not so long as that of the other 
sex.” I have not a copy of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds’ to consult, and I find 
Morris does not give the length of the bill—J. Lk. Palmer; July 6, 1876. 
Hybrid Dovyes,—It may be of interest to some of your readers to know 
that I have this year bred some doves between the turtle and Barbary, 
though it may be common enough for what I know. J had a pair of turtle 
