OF NOETHtTMBEELANT) AND DFEHAM. 29 



India and Burmali, extending to Ceylon in the South, and to the 

 Malay peninsula and islands in the East." 



It appears from Gould that there are but two species of this 

 genus found in Europe, viz., M. apiaster and M. JEgyptius; 

 therefore, the occurrence of the present bii'd adds a third species 

 to the European list. 



Famht. ALCEDIMD^, Bonaparte. 

 2Q. ALCEDO, Linnceus. 

 9. KiNGFisHEE. A. ispiDA, Linneus. 



Alcedo ispida, Bewick, Hist. Brit. Bii'ds, Ed. 1847, I., 293. 

 „ ,, YarreU, Hist. Brit. Biixls, Ed. 2, II., 223. 



The Kingfisher is a resident in the district, and is not uncom- 

 mon. It is mentioned, in Mr. Selby's catalogue, as breeding 

 regularly near Mitford and Angerton, on the Wansbeck. And, 

 according to the same authority, the nest has been taken on the 

 banks of the "Wear, near Chester-le-Street. In 1870, it bred at 

 Stocksfield, and also at Winlaton Mill, on the Derwent. It also 

 breeds by the Skerne near Darlington, and near Bishop Auckland, 

 and in other localities in the county of Durham. It visits Jes- 

 mond Dene every autumn, and may be seen on most of the iN'orth- 

 umbrian streams. 



It breeds annually in a hole in a bank by the edge of the lake 

 in the grounds at Oatlands, Surrey, the residence of Mr. "W. C. 

 Hewitson, where, I am informed by my friend, two broods are 

 reared annually, and that one year he believes there were three. 

 I had an opportunity, in this locality, of watching the parents 

 feeding their nestlings. I concealed myself in the bushes, where 

 I commanded a good view of the entrance to the nest, and found 

 that one or other of the parents came every four or five minutes 

 with a small fish carried crosswise in the bill. I saw this re- 

 peated seven times, when I was discovered by the old birds, and 

 not another fish was brought duiing the time that I remained 

 on the spot watching, nearly half an hour. 



On another occasion, hearing a Kingfisher utter a peculiar cry 



