278 
KINGFISHER. 
The King Duck resides chiefly in the northern parts ; they are plentiful 
at Hudson’s Bay, where they breed on the sides of pools and rivers 
* In some parts of America, says Wilson, their nests are crowded so 
closely together, that a person can scarcely walk without treading on 
them.* The nest is made of sticks and moss, lined with down plucked 
from their own body. The eggs are five or six in number, rather less 
than those of the goose, of a whitish colour. It is not unfrequent in 
the north of Siberia and Kamtschatka, and common in Greenland, where 
the down is accounted of equal value to that of the eider duck, the flesh 
excellent, and the gibbous part of the bill a delicacy. The skins sewed 
together are used for winter garments. 
These birds are not uncommon on the coasts of Norway ; and we are 
assured by Mr. Pennant and others, that it sometimes frequents the 
Orkney isles, which has induced us to give it a place in this work. 
* KINGFISHER {Alcedo Ispida^ Linn^us.) 
*Alcedo Ispida, Linn. Syst. I. p. 179. 3. — Gmel. Syst. p. 448. sp. 3. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. I. p. 252. sp. 20. — Raii, Syn. p. 48. A. 1. — Will. p. 101. t. 24. — Briss. 4. 
p. 471. 1. — Gracula Atthis, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 398. sp. 8.^ — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. 
p. 192. sp. 10. — Ispida Senegalensis, Briss. 4. p. 485. 7. t. 39. f. 1. — Le Martin 
Pecheur, Buff. Ois. 7. p. 164. t. 9. — Le Baboucard, lb. 7. p. 193. — I6.pl. Enl. 
77. — Martin Pecheur Alcyon, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 423. — Gemeine Eis 
Vogel, Bechst. Naturg. Dent. 2. p. 1106 — Meye?-, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 134. 
Frisch, t. 223. — King’s-Fisher, Br. Zool. 1. No. 88. — t. 38.-— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 
280. A. — Albin, 1. t. 54 — Will. (Angl.) p. 146. t. 24. — Lath. Syn. 2. p. 626. 
16. — Ib. Supp. p. 115. — Lewin's Br. Birds, 2. t. 52. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Ib, 
Supp. — Bewick’s Br. Birds, 2. t. 19. — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 6. — Wale. Syn. 1. 
t. 52. — Don. Br. Birds, 4. t. 100. — Shaw’s Zool. 8. p. 88. — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 
90 — Selby, pi. 40. fig. 1. p. 121. 
The weight of this beautifal bird is an ounce and a half; length 
seven inches; the bill is two inches long, and black, tinged with orange 
at the base of the lower mandible ; irides hazel ; the crown of the head 
is of a dark changeable green blue, with numerous small transverse 
bars of bright azure ; from the upper mandible to the eye a dusky 
streak ; the sides of the forehead rufous ; behind the eye a broad stripe 
of red orange, at the lower angle of which, on each side, commences a 
yellowish white stripe, which almost meets on the back part of the 
neck ; from the base of the lower mandible springs a blue streak, which 
runs to the side of the neck ; the throat is buff-coloured ; the under 
parts of a dull orange ; darkest on the breast ; the wing coverts like 
the upper part of the head, but not so much spotted ; down the middle 
of the back, the rump, and upper tail coverts, fine bright azure ; tail 
deep blue ; legs red orange. 
The bill of the female is not so long as in the other sex. *Tlie 
colours also are deeper, and more of a green shade.* 
