2740 Birds. 



Note on the Kingfisher. — Whilst sitting this morning at breakfast, our dining-room 

 windows facing the river, the distance from which is only a few yards, I saw something 

 fall with great speeed into the water, from a considerable height, but so rapidly that 

 I coidd not distinguish form or colour. It struck me at the moment that it must be 

 a kingfisher ; but as it did not appear for some seconds, I thought I was mistaken : 

 such however it proved to be, as in about the space of three or four seconds up he 

 came, with a fish about three inches long in his beak, and returned with it to the tree 

 from which he had watched his prey : he remained there for a short time, and then 

 flew away to a bridge a few yards distant, where I watched him with my glass, and 

 saw him devour his breakfast : he took the fish by the tail, and struck it some score 

 of times against the railing until he had killed it : after several unsuccessful attempts, 

 he succeeded in swallowing the mouthful, remaining on the bridge some minutes after 

 he had finished his meal. This is not the first time I have seen it, for it has occurred 

 repeatedly during my residence here of four or five winters, at about the same time 

 and spot, and probably it is the same individual. I do not know that I should have 

 troubled you with these lines, had I not happened, half an hour after having observed 

 it, to read a similar account in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 2603), in which it is remarked 

 that in some places the kingfisher is said to quit our pools and waters in the winter. 

 I have, however, always observed them more frequently in the autumn and winter 

 than in the summer, during which season I have hardly ever seen them, although they 

 breed regularly in my grounds. — S. Gurney, Jun. ; Carshalton, January, 1850. 



Reply to Mr. Gurney's Inquiry respecting the Gray-legged Goose. — We have delayed 

 to answer Mr. Gurney's inquiry (Zool. 2622) respecting the wild geese found in this 

 neighbourhood, hoping to have done so with greater certainty from the examination of 

 recent specimens during the winter: in this, however, we have unfortunately been 

 disappointed, for, although the season has been upon the whole favourable to their 

 appearance, as yet but few flocks have been seen, and no specimens to our knowledge 

 obtained. With the exception of the common duck, all wild fowl have been unusually 

 scarce in this part of the kingdom : in our excursions we have only met with one flock 

 of teal, generally the most abundant of its family ; and on the same ground where a 

 twelvemonth since we might flush from 100 to 300 snipes, it has been a difficult mat- 

 ter to find a single bird. Whether this scarcity of wild fowl has been general 

 throughout the kingdom we have not heard : in this neighbourhood it must be attri- 

 butable to the long continuance of dry weather in the early part of the autumn, by 

 which the standing water was completely dried up, and the springs themselves almost 

 reduced to the same condition. With reference to the subject of Mr. Gurney's in- 

 quiry, we must confess that our note upon the Anser ferus was written without that 

 consideration which should have been bestowed upon it. Throughout the whole of 

 our somewhat long list, the remarks were made either from our own observations or 

 from the communications of friends upon whose veracity we could rely, and, except 

 in the matter of nomenclature alone, we derived no assistance from, nor even made 

 reference to, the published works of any other ornithologist ; so that although errors, 

 as in the case before us, may here and there be found, our remarks can at least claim 

 the merit of originality. We never felt sufficiently interested in the genus Anser to 

 investigate its species with much care. In our examination of preserved specimens 

 reported to belong to A. Segetum, the " diagnosis " kindly alluded to by Mr. Gurney 

 had not been overlooked, yet, strange as it may appear, all the living or unexamined 

 birds were inconsiderately assigned to its congener, A. ferus, or, as it has been falsely 



