117 



Canaries; and Mr. Godman writes (Ibis, 1872, p. 169) as follows: — "I am not sure that this 

 bird has any real right to be included amongst the resident species of the Canaiies, though it is 

 frequently met with about the coasts of the eastern island. I do not believe it breeds there. I 

 saw it once or twice near the Port of Orotava in Teneriffe, in the middle of April. It is given 

 by Vernon Harcourt in his list of occasional visitors in Madeira." 



The present species ranges much further to the east in Asia than was supposed when 

 Mr. Sharpe wrote his " Monograph ;" for he did not believe that it passed east of Egypt ; 

 Mr. A. O. Hume, however, has clearly shown (Stray Feathers, i. p. 169) that it is found in 

 Sindh. He gives a very careful table of measurements, clearly demonstrating that the examples 

 obtained by him were really nothing but A. ispida; and at the same time he adds (rather 

 unnecessarily, it appears to me) another synonym to the list of those borne by our common 

 Kingfisher, and says, " some ornithologists will doubtless be disposed to consider the brevity 

 of bill coupled with the greater length and bulk of body as entitling the Sindh race to specific 

 separation ; and those who do so may call it A. sindiana ; for my part I look upon it merely as 

 an outlying race of ispida." 



Mr. C. W. Wyatt obtained A. ispida on the marshes near Tor in Arabia ; and Messrs. Blanford 

 and St. John brought several specimens from Persia and Baluchistan. The latter gentleman 

 says that it is the commonest Kingfisher in Persia, and is found everywhere, in suitable localities, 

 from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf; and Mr. A. O. Hume writes (I. c.) as follows: — "I 

 found this species everywhere in Sindh, from Kussmore, the extreme north-east point, to the 

 Hubb river at its south-western extremity. It is impossible to exaggerate the numbers in 

 which this species is found along some of the small rush-fringed canals of Upper Sindh. In 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Jacobabad, along perhaps three or four miles of such a canal, 

 I shot in an hour seven or eight, and saw at least twenty of these birds. In the large rivers and 

 large inland pieces of water they are but rarely met with ; but in all the narrow watercourses, 

 where the dense reeds on either bank bend curving over the stream, nearly meeting in the 

 centre, these little Kingfishers may be seen at every hundred yards or so swaying to and fro on 

 an overhanging stem, or gliding up and down the stream with a noiseless rapidity that baffles 

 description." Dr. Severtzoff informs me that it is never found in Turkestan, where A. bengalensis 

 is common. It is somewhat scarce, but not very rare, and breeds, on the Ural river down to 

 Guriew, and the streams falling into it ; also on the river Bitjug, which falls into the Don, in the 

 Government of Voronege. 



One of our most richly coloured and conspicuously plumaged birds, the Kingfisher is a well- 

 known species throughout the country wherever there are streams or ponds ; for though it prefers 

 a quiet clear stream well shaded by trees and bushes, yet it is not unfrequently met with on 

 ponds and small lakes, if the shores are well covered with bushes and not flat and the water is 

 shallow. It sits during the day in shady places on the edge of water, where it is not easily seen, 

 but where it has a chance of an open view from at least one side, and has favourite places where 

 one may almost always be met with, and where it perches on the same branch, stone, or stump, 

 the latter being, I have observed, a favourite perch when there is one overhanging the water. 

 Here the bird sits silently and quietly watching for its finny prey, unless disturbed, when it 

 shoots out and darts quickly along the stream, uttering its shrill cry, and looking lovely as the 



