372 
HALCYONIM. 
a kingfisher perched on a branch overhanging a pond, and 
about a foot above it, while trout, all too large for its mastery, 
kept leaping up immediately beneath as if in defiance of their 
enemy. Prom a branch fully six feet above the water, this 
bird has been observed to dart down upon its prey. A gentleman 
once informed me, that beside the nest of a kingfisher he had 
found the perfect skeleton of a fish which induced him to believe 
that the bird does not swallow the fish whole, but picks the flesh 
off. That such, however, is not the case, the stomachs of the 
few, — seven in number, — which I have myself examined, suffi- 
ciently attested, as they all contained fish-bones only. The two 
before alluded to, as frequenting the Lagan within flow of the 
tide in January, 1836, fell victims to the gun at the end of that 
month, and were found on dissection to have their stomachs filled 
with Crustacea', said to be “ shrimps” about an inch in length. 
Mr. Poole remarks, that kingfishers perform a partial migration, 
probably from some inland district to the vicinity of the shore of 
Wexford harbour, where, during the winter months, they frequent 
small rills, &c. communicating with the sea at high tides ; “ multi- 
tudes of shrimps and small fry of fish are wintered here, and furnish 
their beautiful enemy with a readily obtained supply of food. - ” 
In the winter of 1830-31, a bird-preserver in Belfast received so 
many as seven kingfishers in the course of a month. Of these, three 
were shot at the Lagan,* one near Downpatrick, and two or three at 
the Six-mile Water, one of the tributaries of Lough Neagh. 
Within about a month on another occasion, from the middle of 
October to that of November, I saw seven of these birds which 
had been sent to taxidermists in Belfast. One of them was 
from the last-named river, and two others from the Inver, 
at Larne, and the Milewater, all county of Antrim streams; 
one from Killileagh (co. Down), and three from Coleraine (co. Lon- 
donderry). During a week in January, 1841, Mr. B. Davis, jun., 
* On the 21st of September, 1833, kingfishers were said to be plentiful about 
this river ; four were seen together on a bank of gravel, and on being frightened 
away flew in company up the stream ; about a mile below where they were first ob- 
served, my informant proceeding onwards saw two more : so many appearing within 
such a limited space, is extraordinary. 
