﻿varieties of our Common Kingfisher are met with. Mr. F. Bond has a specimen beautifully 

 varied with white, and M. Jules Verreaux informs us that he has lately seen two Kingfishers 

 quite white with pink eyes, but on the breast was a faint tinge of rufous, and on the back a 

 tinge of green. Mr. Bond likewise once shot a specimen which had the outer tail-feathers 

 elongated in a curious manner. 



We cannot now in England plead the excuse of the superstition of the peasantry in 

 using the dried bird as a weather-cock (which practice still prevails in France as recorded 

 above by M. Jules Verreaux), as the cause of the wholesale destruction which threatens this 

 lovely bird. This usage evidently existed in this country in Shakespeare's time, and three 

 instances are adduced by Mr. J. E. Harting in his interesting articles on the " Birds of 

 Shakespeare" (Zool. 1867, p. 533): — ''It was also supposed that the dead bird, carefully 

 balanced and suspended by a single thread, would always turn its back towards that point 

 of the compass from which the wind blew. Kent, in 'King Lear,' speaks of rogues who 

 •turn their halcyon beaks with every gale and vary of their masters;' and after Shakespeare, 

 Marlowe, in his ' Jew of Malta,' says: 'But how now stands the wind? Into what corner 

 peers my halcyon'' s bill ? ' " 



The greatest enemy of the Kingfisher in England now appears to be the preserver oi 

 salmon-fry, and to the youthful fish the sharp-eyed Kingfisher proves a destructive foe, and 

 the fishermen by putting snares across the hole catch the female birds in great numbers. 

 Another way of catching Kingfishers is by placing thin meshed-nets across narrow brooks; 

 this plan is extensively practised, Mr. J. H. Gurney informs me, near Darlington, and we also 

 often get them thus caught on the brooks near Hendon, in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 London. In confinement the Kingfisher is not an easy bird to keep, but in the Fish-house 

 at the Zoological Gardens one or two may usually be seen, and their dexterity in capturing 

 fish may often be noticed. Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the well-known Superintendent of the Zoological 

 Gardens, tells us a curious story of a nest of young Kingfishers which were placed in the 

 Aviary in the Fish-house in the above-named Gardens, and were duly nurtured and reared by 

 another old bird, already domiciled there. The young ones were allowed to progress till 

 they reached a decent size, when they were every one killed for some unaccountable reason 

 by the old foster-parent, who speared them through with his bill. 



As regards the occurrence of the Kingfisher in Ireland, Mr. Harry Blake-Knox, one of 

 the best Field Naturalists we have in Great Britain, has written to us as follows : — 



" Were I to write a history of this species I could only repeat the remarks of other 

 Naturalists, and with regard to its migration in the County Dublin I can say but little but 

 that it is not a common bird with us except in autumn. I have no doubt it would be a 

 permanent resident in the county and generally throughout Ireland if unmolested, because 

 it breeds in suitable localities and tarries with us frequently through the winter. It 

 looks especially beautiful when seen in the latter season of the year, flying across the frozen 

 rivers or crossing the snow. During the autumn there is a great influx of Kingfishers into 

 this and the neighbouring counties, and it is solely at this season one meets with them 

 upon the coast, and then only where it is rocky and consequently full of pools, in which 

 rock fish and crustaceans (particularly prawns) are left by the receding tide, and these 

 afford a plentiful supply of food for the Kingfishers. I am confident these birds, so found, 

 are on their way south, but that they linger for months in such haunts I am positive, from 

 the fact of always meeting a pair or more in the same locality. I have seen them on our 

 islands, miles out to sea, where they have taken up a temporary abode, and 1 have elsewhere 

 mentioned how strangely out of place they seem in such localities, and how they roost on 

 the gunwales of boats in little companies, sitting side by side like Love-birds. They utter a 

 shrill grating whistle more frequently over the salt water than over the fresh. The ret anting 

 spring migration like that of the Skua is not performed along the east coast of Ireland, 

 and perhaps like the Skua takes place on the western, but of this I have no proof." 



Our descriptions and plate are from specimens shot in Berkshire by the late 

 Mr. W. Briggs of Cookham. 



