MOLES.—KINGFISHER. 411 
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strange deserves notice, namely that at the Zoologi¬ 
cal Gardens in Regent’s Park, a fine tortoise was 
to be seen in the winter of the same year, in a 
state of torpor, while a number of its young be¬ 
side it were all life and animation. But notwith¬ 
standing this seemingly somewhat contradictory 
occurrence, the whole history of our imported 
tortoises shews in the clearest way, that arrange¬ 
ments are naturally made in their constitutions for 
the same hybernation which they assume in their 
own countries. 
Moles probably sleep much during the cold of 
winter, but on occurrence of the slightest thaw 
they are to be found active in repairing their un¬ 
derground roads. It is likely that frosts by causing 
expansion of the water of the soil might be the 
means of forcing into their galleries large quantities 
of mould, and of thus obstructing these adits, making 
work for the moles each time of its occurrence. 
Since moles repair their galleries during any intei* 
missions of frost, are they torpid at a certain degree 
of cold ? 
The Kingfisher is not very numerous here ; it is 
noticed mostly during winter, when, owing to dimi¬ 
nished resources, some of the species appear on the 
coasts of our harbours, inlets, and estuaries, as also 
on the margins of large ponds and other collections 
of water; by this migration, on the part of these 
individuals, greater space is allowed for the main 
body living throughout the year on the banks of 
rivers to capture their prey in a season of compara¬ 
tive scarcity to the race. This removal to the coast 
takes place about October. It is here, as before 
noticed, that the bird attracts most notice, its splen¬ 
did plumage coutrasting strongly with the rock on 
which it is perched, waiting an opportunity to dive 
at some passing fish. Several of the species were 
3 A 2 
