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In the winter season numbers of these 
birds frequent the banks of the rivers near 
this city, and we have known many 
instances of their having been taken alive, 
and kept for a considerable time upon 
small fish. We are also acquainted with 
an instance of a gentleman procuring the 
young of this species, which he kept for 
some weeks upon small pieces of fish, and 
we doubt not would have succeeded in 
rearing them, had they not been destroyed 
by a cat. 
This bird inhabits various parts of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, and is the only 
species belonging to this genus ever taken 
in the British Isles. 
Many persons believe that, when the 
body of a Kingfisher is suspended by a 
thread, that its breast always turns to 'the 
north. This, however, is as fabulous as 
the tradition that it will preserve woollen 
cloth from the depredations of the moth. 
The ancient name of this bird was 
Alcyon or Halcyon, and its history appears 
to* have supplied to the mycologists and 
poets of antiquity, an ample theme for 
T 
