One mode of capturing these birds, as practised in many places, is extremely cruel. A number of small spring-traps are set on narrow boards crossing the stream, on the hatches, and on old boughs hanging over the river, on which kingfishers often perch, and when settling on these the trap is sprung, and catches the poor birds across the legs, breaking and tearing them. There they remain, may be for many hours, till the river-keeper visits his traps. It often happens that the trap cuts the legs clean off, and the poor maimed bird flies away to die a lingering and terrible death by starvation.

In the Highlands of Scotland, where the proprietors or the tenants prevent the destruction of the golden eagle or the peregrine falcon, the grouse on these moors are found to be just as plentiful, and much more healthy, as on those where the birds of prey are ruthlessly exterminated. In the same way, the kingfishers cannot hurt a trout-river. Nothing is more detrimental than overstocking-it breeds disease in the grouse on the moor, and lanky, unhealthy fish in the river.

The kingfisher has a most interesting mythological history. Aristotle, who died 320 B.C., writes of its powers of calming the winds when sitting on its eggs in the seagirt nest. Look into Ovid or Lemprière, and read how Alcyone, daughter of Eolus, married Ceyx, who, unfortunately, was drowned in a great storm; and when Alcyone found his dead body on the shore, she threw herself into the sea, and was changed, together with her husband, into kingfishers, with the permission to keep the waters calm and serene for the space of seven to fourteen days whilst they built their nest on the surface of the ocean. Hence "calm" days and "halcyon" days are synonymous terms:

"There came the halcyon, whom the sea obeys,
When she her nest upon the water lays."

Thus wrote Drayton, and thus the poets write up to the
Keats says:-

present time.

"O magic sleep; O comfortable bird

That broodest o'er the troubled sea of wind

Till it is hush'd and smooth."

The French call the kingfisher "Martin Pecheur," in allusion to St. Martin's summer; and Shakespeare says :—

"Expect Saint Martin's summer; halycon days."

There is a curious notion prevalent in some of the counties of Great Britain that when the skin of the kingfisher is hung up by a thread, the beak will always turn to the quarter the wind is blowing from, or even before a storm commences, and this curious weather-gauge may still be found in many cottages. Shakespeare alludes to this in "King Lear:"

“Revenge affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale."

Christopher Marlowe also, in the "Jew of Malta:"

"Into what corner peers my halcyon bill?

Ha! to the east."

We plead for the kingfisher. Let us hope more merciful and more sensible councils will prevail, and that we may all again be delighted to watch the bright hues and rapid flight of this "gem of the waters."

THE SEDGE-WARBLER.

When by the river-side we are often little aware how we are surrounded by animal life, how many pairs of eyes are intently watching our movements. One bird in particular is a constant companion, always hiding when one is on the move; but if for a moment one remains perfectly still, a short babbling song, a little harsh in its note, issues from the reeds, and a pretty little brown bird will probably appear moving up the stems or resting on the top of a flag, and will pour forth a series of varied notes, often imitating those of other birds, at the same time being quite aware of Any quick or hurried movement and he at once disappears. His babble will cease, and he will utter his low, warning call-note-Churr-churr-churr; but

your presence.

he is a fearless little fellow, and is not a bit afraid. Just cast a stone or a clod of earth to where you last saw him, and he will at once resent such impertinence by bursting out again in full song, though in somewhat a lower key. This amusing bird is the SEDge-Warbler (Acrocephalus schanobanus), two crackjaw words, which mean, in plain English, "the pointed-headed bird of the sedges and bulrushes." Of the family Sylviida; it is commonly known on the banks of the Thames as the Chat. In Ireland it is called the Irish nightingale, as it often sings through the night. It is a summer resident, coming in April and departing in October. On its arrival it at once takes up its abode among the reeds and flags, and builds its nest with grass and bents, placed low down; lays four or five spotted eggs of a yellowish red-brown colour. Seebohm ("British Birds and their Eggs ") says "that its haunts are as much in the tangled brake and dense vegetation of marshy plantations as amongst the ever-murmuring reeds." The bird itself is from 4 inches to 5 inches in length, of a rufous brown, streaked with darker brown. A broad streak of yellowish white extends from the beak back over the eyes and ear-coverts. The breast and lower part is of a pale buff, and notice the broad white streak over the eye. One can easily see these marks by using the binocular, and in this manner can distinguish this bird. from another which frequents the reeds, but which is much more shy, namely

THE REED-WARBLER.

The REED-WARBLER (Acrocephalus streperus); that is, the Long-Headed, Noisy, or Bustling Bird.

Seebohm calls it arundinaceous, or frequenter of reeds, which is much more characteristic. It is of the same order and family as the sedge-warbler, but is larger and more slender, and, from its peculiarly shy habits, not so often seen or heard, although it is probably quite as common. If you are quiet, and in the vicinity of the tall reeds (Arundo phragmites), one occasionally is seen flying over the droop

ing panicles. Its song is often mistaken for that of the sedge-warbler, but the notes are much sweeter. Mr. Dresser ("Birds of Europe "), quoting from Naumann, gives the notes thus: Tiri-tiri-tiri, tier-tier-tier-zach-zach-zach, zeri-zeri-zeri, tiri-tiri-scherch, scherch-scherch, heid-heid, heid, tret-tret-tret, and says the entire song is rather a babbling melody than a song. The bird often sings at night, more especially in calm, close weather.

THE REED-WARBLER.

The colour is a pale uniform rufous olive, with a reddish tinge above the tail, a very pale yellow streak over the eye, but nothing like so distinct as that of the sedge-warbler; breast and under parts pale yellow buff. It builds a beautiful nest interlaced in the stems of reeds, generally about half-way up, and is very deep, so that it is not disturbed by the wind. The eggs are greenish-white.

This bird is common on the Test, the Itchen, the Kennet, and wherever high reeds grow,