Correspondence.


PLEASE NOTE!



103



Will members most kindly assist the Editor by supplying

articles and notes, if they possibly can ? Members who have friends

or relatives in Africa, India, etc. could perhaps obtain ‘ copy ’ from

them.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


THE KINGFISHER.


SIR, — I am sure many members of the Avicultural Society will wish that

your interesting article in last month’s number of the Magazine had been carried

a little further, and had indicated with more detail the methods and difficulties

of keeping Kingfishers in captivity.


I have never myself noted more than two instances of private individuals

keeping them with any measure of success, One instance was that of a man

who, after several efforts, netted in a long length of a natural stream well

stocked with small fish, and kept a Kingfisher in the enclosure ; and in this case

it is only in a limited sense that the Kingfisher could be said to be in captivity.

The other instance I have in mind was recorded at length a few years ago in

“ The Fishing Gazette ” where one of a pair of Kingfishers having been wantonly

destroyed, a man took the young birds and fed them for a time by hand. His

life during the period of rearing was apparently rendered more or less miserable

by having to feed at intervals nearly all the 24 hours, and if I recollect rightly he

had to provide 200 minnows a day.


It seems quite impracticable for the ordinary individual to follow either

of the above courses, and a possible solution of the difficulty to my mind would

be if young Kingfishers could be hand-reared and got on to some sort of artificial

food. I wonder if anyone has attempted this, and if so with what measure of

success. It sounds very difficult, but after seeing Mr. Wormald’s famous hand-

reared Snipe I should not despair. If success could be attained it would be

worth a determined effort.


There is one paragraph in your article respecting which I should like to

offer with the greatest humility a mild friendly criticism, and that is where you

say “ If the Kingfishers do prey upon very small trout, and as a rule these birds

“are to be found in the smaller backwaters where minnows abound and form

“their food, cannot some be spared for these lovely creatures?”


To cast any doubt on the destructiveness of Kingfishers to trout is to my

mind from a bird-lover’s point of view adopting a position which cannot be defended

and giving the enemy an opportunity to blaspheme. Overwhelming evidence is

constantly being furnished from trout hatcheries and elsewhere as to the

destructiveness of Kingfishers to trout fry, and under natural conditions King-



