116 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



were received bj' the Stonehonse bird-stuflfers (J. G., Zool. 1874, p. 3827 ; 

 1877, p. 45; 1878, p. 54; 1870, p. 114; 1881, p. 54; 1884, p. 55; 1885, 

 p. 370). In September 18(38 Kingfishers were unusually plentiful on the 

 Piiver Teign (J. H. G,, Zool. 18G8, p. 1454), Six or seven were seen in one 

 afternoon in September 1874 near Instow, N. Devon (G. F. M., Zool. 

 1874, p. 4^52). The late F. W. L. Eoss, of Topsham (MS. Journal, 

 vol. iii. 1841, p. 110), records that a young Kingfisher was brought to 

 him on May 25th taken from a hole in the Red Sandstone cliflPs on the 

 banks of the lliver Clyst behind Topsham, where a pair had bred for 

 seventy-five years. The young were fed on small prawns [Palasmon 

 varians, extremely abundant in tide-pools and salt ditches in the 

 neighbouring marshes]. A few pairs breed close to Exeter on the 

 1)anks of small streams. IMr. Xathaniel Lloyd told us on 5th Mav, 1884, 

 that on the 2nd of that month he had found three nests near Cullompton 

 Mithin half a mile of one another. One had a handful offish-bones at the 

 end of the hole, another had seven eggs hard set, and the third contained 

 five half-fledged young birds (W. D'U.). The Kingfisher breeds in the 

 Kingsbridge estuary and on the Avon (R. P. N., MS, Notes), 



The Kingfisher is one of the common objects of country life, and one of 

 the most beautiful, generally to be observed flying low over the surface of 

 a stream with straight and rapid flight, looking like a living gem in the 

 sunlight. The bird has a shrill, mouse-like cry, which often betrays it 

 before it is seen. We have heard it asserted that the Water-Ouzel and 

 Kingfisher do not usually frequent the same streams, and, to a certain 

 extent, our experience is that this holds good. Rut Ave have not unfre- 

 (]ucntly seen the two birds by the same water when fishing, although the 

 Kingfisher more often seeks stiller brooks than the rushing trout-streams 

 loved by the Dipper, and by the sides of ponds in salt marshes, or by the 

 sea-shore, or by the quiet shallows and backwaters of sluggish rivers 

 fringed by overhanging willows and rank aquatic plants, prefers to sit in 

 wait for the tiny fisliAvhich form its prey. Except just after the nesting- 

 season it is not a common sight to observe more than a single Kingfisher 

 at a time. For the most part the bird is a solitary hunter. We have, 

 occasionally, in the summer time, in some favourite spot, come across 

 five or six together, a little party composed of the young of the year and 

 the old birds. Peeping carefully over a flood-gate, where there is a little 

 pool below with stone walls on either side, or stakes suitable for perches, 

 a very interesting scene may be enjoyed, and, if we keep still, one of the 

 old birds may be seen to make a sudden dart into the water, emerging 

 with a minnow or some other small fry, which it will proceed to give to 

 one of its excited voung ones, quivering its wings and calling shrilly to 

 be fed. 



The nest and nesting-habits of the Kingfisher have been often described, 

 by no one, ])erhaps, more carefully than by Col. Montagu, who devoted 

 ranch study to this beautiful bird, and, as it was no doubt more plentiful 

 in his day than it is now, had better opportunities for observing it. He 

 noticed that whenever a pair of Kingfishers had selected a convenient 

 hole they would repair to it whenever they wanted to regurgitate, and as 



