372 HALCYONIDyE. 



a kingfisher perched on a branch overhanging a pond, and 

 about a foot above it, while trout, all too large for its mastery, 

 kept leaping up immediately beneath as if in defiance of their 

 enemy. From a branch fully six feet above the water, this 

 bird has been observed to dart down upon its prey. A gentleman 

 once informed me, that beside the nest of a kingfisher he had 

 found the perfect skeleton of a fish which induced him to believe 

 that the bird does not swallow the fish whole, but picks the flesh 

 off. That such, however, is not the case, the stomachs of the 

 few, — seven in number, — which I have myself examined, suffi- 

 ciently attested, as they all contained fish-bones only. The two 

 before alluded to, as frequenting the Lagan within flow of the 

 tide in January, 1836, fell victims to the gun at the end of that 

 month, and were found on dissection to have their stomachs filled 

 with Crustacea; said to be "shrimps" about an inch in length. 

 Mr. Poole remarks, that kingfishers perform a partial migration, 

 probably from some inland district to the vicinity of the shore of 

 Wexford harbour, where, during the winter months, they frequent 

 small rills, &c. communicating with the sea at high tides ; " multi- 

 tudes of shrimps and small fry of fish are wintered here, and furnish 

 their beautiful enemy with a readily obtained supply of food." 



In the winter of 1830-31, a bird-preserver in Belfast received so 

 many as seven kingfishers in the course of a month. Of these, three 

 were shot at the Lagan,* one near Downpatrick, and two or three at 

 the Six-mile Water, one of the tributaries of Lough Neagh. 

 Within about a month on another occasion, from the middle of 

 October to that of November, I saw seven of these birds which 

 had beeu sent to taxidermists in Belfast. One of them was 

 from the last-named river, and two others from the Inver, 

 at Larne, and the Milewater, all county of Antrim streams; 

 one from Killileagh (co. Down), and three from Coleraine (co. Lon- 

 donderry). During a week in January, 1841, Mr. E. Davis, jun., 



* On the 21st of September, 1833, kingfishers were said to be plentiful about 

 this river ; four were seen together on a bank of gravel, and on being frightened 

 away flew in company up the stream ; about a mile below where they were first ob- 

 served, my informant proceeding onwards saw two more : so many appearing within 

 such a limited space, is extraordinary. 



