68 
ai.i.en’s naturat.ist’s I.TERaRV 
Range in Great Britain. — Universally distributed, but rarer in 
the north of Scotland. To a great extent migratory, though 
many individuals remain throughout the year. 
Range outside the British Islands. — P'ound throughout the greater 
part of Europe, hut not extending to the northern portions of 
the Continent. Thus it is only an accidental visitor to Den- 
mark and Southern Scandinavia, and extends rarely as far north 
as St. Petersburg. In India and China a smaller race occurs, 
of a more vivid blue colour, but the Kingfishers of Egypt, 
Central Asia, and Sind are perfectly intermediate in colour and 
size, and it is impossible to recognise the eastern race {Alcedo 
bengalensis) as distinct, and therefore we may consider the 
Common Kingfisher as an inhabitant of the Palxarctic and 
Indian Regions, merely noting that in its eastern habitat the 
bird is rather smaller and more highly coloured. The King- 
fishers which leave England in the autumn do not apparently 
travel farther south than the Mediterranean countries, and even 
here the species is said to be resident, and to nest regularly in 
small numbers. 
Habits. — The protection from shooting, which has of late 
years been afforded to our beautiful Kingfisher on the Thames, 
has certainly contributed to an increase in the number of the 
species, and its bright plumage may now be seen at almost 
any time of the year. It is unnecessary to add that the beauty 
of the river scenery is much enhanced by the presence of 
such a pretty bird as the Kingfisher, whose beauty might be 
allowed to atone for any delinquencies in the way of catching 
small trout. 
The flight of a Kingfisher is usually advertised by its note 
which is a peculiarly shrill dissyllabic one — a kind of “ h’wee 
h’wee ” — uttered as the bird flies along at a prodigious rate, 
with a rapid beating of his powerful rounded wings, the bill 
being held straight out. It by no means follows, however, that 
the bird is flying over the water all the way, for, as often as not, 
the Kingfisher rises to a considerable height and takes a swil: 
turn through a portion of the woods or across a meadow, rejoin- 
ing the stream a little farther on. It is a quarrelsome species, 
and jealous of intruders, so that a chase often takes place, if 
another Kingfisher should happen to interfere with the fishing- 
