176 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
dead and stufFed condition under glass, and there 
is also a demand for its feathers for fly-tying. 
But owing to the protection now afforded it in 
most counties under the Acts, and by the Thames 
Conservancy bye-laws, it has increased a good deal 
during the past fifteen years or so in many parts 
of the country, and is certainly at present in no 
danger of extinction. During the severe and early 
frost of November, 1 904, I watched for some time 
two Kingfishers busily fishing not three feet from 
the main road in a much-frequented Thames-side 
village, quite regardless of a passing bicycle which 
scared away a Snipe which was also feeding at the 
edge of the pool immediately beneath the bridge 
on which I stood, and there were several more 
Kingfishers along the backwaters within a range of 
half a mile. They will often show unusual tame- 
ness in very cold weather. But even in July I 
once found myself within three yards of a King- 
fisher, on coming to the end of a hedge where it 
abutted upon a stream in the fields ; the bird was 
posted on a rail over the water, watching the shallows 
in the opposite direction, and a couple of minutes 
passed before it flitted gently away, after twisting 
its head round once, looking me full in the face, 
and turning again to its fishing without alarm. 
It doubtless heard nothing, and practically saw 
nothing, as birds and animals never seem to recog- 
