AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 255 



109. COMMON KINGFISHER. 



Alcedo ispida. 



We are glad to say that this beautiful bird is still 

 common in the portion of our county with which we 

 are best acquainted, although in some parts of the 

 kingdom, where it was formerly abundant, we are 

 informed that it has been almost exterminated by the 

 craze for brilliant feathers which seems occasionally 

 to seize upon the fair sex, a remnant, no doubt, of 

 the barbaric taste of our ancestresses for personal 

 adornment. Other reasons may also have to do with 

 the destruction of this species, viz. the demand for 

 portions of its plumage for making artificial flies, 

 and the prejudice against this bird on account of its 

 piscivorous habits. This latter charge cannot be 

 denied, but by far the majority of the fishes taken by 

 Kingfishers are of course small in size and of small 

 value, as the bird is certainly more addicted to com- 

 paratively still waters, which aff"ord an abundant 

 supply of the fry of the coarser species, than to the 

 rapid streams in which the Salmonidae delight. The 

 Kingfisher is said to be a very early breeder, and 

 instances are on record of young birds having been 

 met with out of the nest in the month of March, but 

 in our county, as also in Oxfordshire and Devonshire, 

 we never met with an occupied nesting-place earlier 

 than the beginning of May. We use the expression 

 nesting-place advisedly, for we have never found in 

 the holes tenanted by this species anything that 

 could be correctly called a nest, though the eggs are 

 often laid upon the indigestible portions of food cast 



