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October, leaving in March." In Switzerland and Savoy it is resident, but is, Bailly says, more 

 numerous in the summer, a partial migration taking place in winter. It is also common and 

 breeds in Italy, being, according to Savi, a resident in Tuscany. Mr. A. B. Brooke remarks that 

 though he visited many likely localities he never saw a Kingfisher in Sardinia, where, according 

 to Salvadori, it is not uncommon; but Mr. C. A. Wright (Ibis, 1864, p. 73) says that in Malta 

 the common Kingfisher, which is called by the Maltese Ghasfur ta San Martin, is " an annual 

 visitor; generally seen about the sea-shore in pairs. Arrives in August and September, and 

 occasionally observed in the winter months. One was killed on the 14th March, 1862. Said to 

 breed here sometimes." 



Lord Lilford says that it is common at Epirus ; and Dr. Kriiper states that it is frequently 

 to be met with in Greece during the winter, but he is doubtful as to whether it ever remains 

 there to breed. It is tolerably common in Southern Germany and in the countries bordering 

 the Upper Danube, but is said to be rarer on the Lower Danube and in Tm-key. Professor von 

 Nordmann writes (in Demidoff, Voy. Buss. Merid. iii. p. 207) that it " lives in pairs on the shady 

 banks of all the rivers which empty themselves into the Black Sea ; towards the middle of April 

 it arrives on the marshes which are found in the neighbourhood of Odessa. It is pretty generally 

 distributed throughout the province of Ghouriel;" but Mr. Goebel writes (J. f. O. 1871, p. 135) 

 that he only once met with it (in July) in the Uman district in Southern Russia. Mr. Danford 

 has lent me specimens from Asia Minor, shot in the winter season ; and Dr. Kriiper says that he 

 believes it sometimes remains to breed near Smyrna. Canon Tristram, who met with it in 

 Palestine, gives (Ibis, 1866, p. 84) the following particulars respecting its distribution: — "Alcedo 

 ispida is scattered everywhere throughout the country wherever there are streams, and also along 

 the Mediterranean coasts ; but it is nowhere very abundant, though evidently unaffected by 

 climate, fishing indifferently in the little torrents of the Lebanon, among the ruined columns of 

 Tyre, or in the seething swamps of the Jordan valley. All three species [A. ispida, Ceryle rudis, 

 and Halcyon smyrnensis] resort to the shores of the Dead Sea, attracted by the shoals of fishes 

 which are brought down by the freshwater streams and soon stupified by the brine of the lake. 

 One morning on the western side, Mr. Shepherd shot all three species within a few minutes of each 

 other; generally, however, we met with A. ispida in more secluded localities, and on the banks 

 of smaller streams than the others, and even in ditches. In the Lebanon it is the only species." 

 In North-east Africa the present species meets its eastern representative, A. bengalensis ; but 

 this latter appears to be only an accidental and rare visitor. Captain Shelley says (B. of Egypt, 

 p. 165) that it is " very abundant in the Nile delta, and occasionally met with throughout Egypt. 

 I have myself seen it above Cairo upon three occasions — at Sioot, Koos, and Thebes ;" and 

 Von Heuglin, who says that he found the present species somewhat rare (in the winter) from 

 the delta into Central Egypt, adds that all those he obtained were immature birds. Loche says 

 that it is common in Algeria ; Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt-Drake records it from Tangier and Eastern 

 Morocco as " common and breeding ;" but Colonel Irby says (I. c.) that, according to Favier, " it 

 is only found from August to March, and is not common near Tangier, but more abundant 

 near Rabat." 



It has also been met with in the Canaries and at Madeira. Dr. C. Bolle says (J. f. O. 1854, 

 p. 461) that it is a rare resident in the " barrancos" of the warmer portions of the coasts of the 



