﻿does not occur either on the mainland of Rumelia nor in the Peloponnesus, but possibly on 

 the islands. This view has been fully confirmed, as Yon der Miihle only obt:unc<l if once 

 on the island of Thermia, and remarks at the same time that he could never find it on the 

 mainland of the Peloponnesus. It was, however, well known to the mariners. I have 

 once obtained this Kingfisher from the island of Mykove. Erhardt includes it as a summer 

 bird at the Cyclades. I could ascertain nothing about its habits, nidification, or time of 

 emigration." 



Demidoff ("Voy. Russie Merid. p. 207) says : — 



" This species has not yet been observed on the northern coast of the Black Sea, and 

 is confined to the shores of the Sea of Marmora.'' 



Dr. Tristram, in his paper on the Ornithology of Palestine says, that " Ceryle rudis is 

 the commonest and most conspicuous species in the country. We first saw it on the sea- 

 shore in winter, when, in the months of November and December, immense numbers resort 

 to the sea-coast. They were particularly abundant about Tyre and Sidon and all the way 

 to Mount Carmel, frequenting the shore, and hovering by dozens over the sea about a 

 hundred yards from land, and occasionally perching with loud cries on an outlying rock. 

 At this time they were very wary, and cost us much trouble to procure. During the most 

 stormy gales of winter they continued, regardless of the weather, to hover over the breakers, 

 ever and anon dashing from into the surf and apparently diving to the bottom for their 

 prey. Their flight and actions reminded us very much of the Kestril. After rising with 

 a somewhat jerking flight, they would poise themselves for several minutes with a gentle 

 quiver of the wing, and then suddenly drop perpendicularly, beak foremost, for a header, 

 or else glide swiftly onwards to take up another aerial post of observation. They are at all 

 times of the year gregarious in small bands ; a few breed near the Jordan, in the banks of 

 the Wady Kelt, but the great breeding place which we discovered was on the plain of 

 Gennesaret, in the banks of the Ain Mudawarah. Here there was a colony of about thirty 

 pairs, only a small proportion, however, of the birds of this species which feed on the 

 teeming myriads of fishes in the hallowed lake. They selected a different part of the bank, 

 and built in a different position from Halcyon smyrnensis. Shortly before its entrance into 

 the lake the Mudawarah forms a hollow secluded pool, with steep banks of mud about 

 twenty feet high above the water, which may have a depth of ten or twelve feet. The sides 

 of this little amphitheatre were perforated all around by the holes of the Great Kingfisher, 

 but all of them close to the water edge, about four inches above it. Here on the 28th of 

 April, Mr. Bartlett took two nests of six and four eggs respectively. I revisited the locality 

 on the 21st and 22nd of May, and found great numbers of young birds fledged and able to 

 fish for themselves, while some nests contained from four to six young ; but 1 still secured 

 five nests with fresh eggs in each. The only way of securing them was to strip and swim 

 to the bank, while an Arab threw down a rope from above which I fastened round my waist 

 while he held the other end; and thus suspended in the pleasant tepid bath, I dug away 

 with the mattock let down to me till the eggs were reached. The passages were about 

 three feet and a quarter in length, and the chamber at the end was simply scooped at one 

 end of the passage, not turned at a sharp angle, nor double, like that of the Bee Eater- In 

 one instance I had dug long and laboriously when out dashed a great rat instead of a King- 

 fisher, leaving her six naked young to their fate. In no instance were there any bones with 

 the eggs, though, when there were young, there was a festering heap of bones and filth. 

 But there was always an abundantly-heaped nest of grass and weeds. In one nest, which 

 had been visited and robbed by Mr. Bartlett, there was a family of three unfledged young; 

 so that the bird must have laid again almost immediately in the same digging. The whole 

 colony sat about on the oleanders, or passed and repassed incessantly during my operations, 

 screaming and shrieking at the intruder most vociferously. The eggs of this specit-s vary 

 in shape more than those of any other Kingfisher with which I am acquainted. Though 

 generally almost spherical, those of two nests we captured were decidedly elongated ; in 



