ALCEDINIDAE—KINGFISHER. 149
beginning of April and departing in September. In some years it is
very scarce. In 1888,
I did not hear one near
Chelmsford.
Round Orsett, Mr. Sac-
kett describes it as a com-
mon spring visitor, but
adds : " I do not think
that all we hear in the
early spring stay to breed,
as I have only taken two
clutches." King says (20)
in 1838, "This bird does
not appear plentiful in our
neighbourhood" (Sudbury),
but Mr. Grubb says (39) it
"never fails to give tidings
of its arrival [there] about
the middle of April." Writ-
ing- from Epping in 1832,
Henry Doubleday says (10),
" This bird, which used to
be heard a few years since
in all directions, is now so
scarce that I have not heard more, than three or four in the neighbourhood."
In the following year he says, " This bird appears to decrease in number every
year in the neighbourhood." Mr. Fitch has found nests several times in the Bird-
brook District, twice at Maldon, and twice at Rayleigh.
Family ALCEDINIDAE.
Kingfisher : Alcedo ispida,
A resident throughout the county, I believe, though nowhere
common. On the saltings round our coast, Mr. Fitch says it becomes
much more common during winter than it is in summer.
Around Sudbury, King says
(20) that it was " not uncom-
mon," in 1838. The Rev. J. C.
Atkinson says (36. 98) : "In
my fishing and other excursions
in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, and
Herefordshire, I used to see
many pairs; each, however,
domiciled at some distance from
its nearest neighbours. Mr.
Buxton says (47. 87) it is " not
unfrequently seen by the ponds
and streams in the Forest. The