observing its movements for the space of half a minute, when it flew off with an undulating flight to a considerable distance and was seen no more.']
86. Kingfisher. Alcedo ispida, Linn.
Resident and generally distributed wherever there are streams or other suitable waters. Owing to their bright plumage they are frequently shot without object or reason, and the nests are often robbed, so that they get considerably thinned out. They have evi- dently been very frequent at times. Mr. A. R. Cocks tells us (Zoologist, 1891, p. 154) that a local birdstuffer at Great Marlow had nearly 100 specimens to stuff in the year 1 890. Mr. Cocks also informs us (in litt.) that they have become much rarer through persecution, but that they have to a certain extent re- covered their numbers since they have been less persecuted in recent years.
87. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn.
This beautiful bird has been obtained a good many times. A female was shot at Stewkley April 24, 1862 (Jones, Field, 1862, p. 387). A male was shot in April 1888 near Wendover, in one of the driest parts of the Chiltern Hills (Odling, Field, 1888, p. 536). One was killed at Lavender Park farm November 20, 1889 (Tomalin, Field, 1889, p. 777). On April 27, 1859, one was seen at West Wycombe, and one, prob- ably the same specimen, shot two days after at Eyrsham (Roby in the Field, 1859). On May 3 one was wounded at Burnham Grove naar Maidenhead (Thomas Ingatton). One was caught alive in 1861 or 1862 near Eton. In 1828 one was shot near the Eton Wick public-house (Birds of Berks and Such). In 1857 one was shot at Aston Abbots. Others have been killed at Chesham and Buckingham. It is certainly a pity that almost every specimen seen in England falls to the gun, and science is hardly benefited thereby. Whether the hoopoe would, if unmolested, soon become a regular breeding species, as has been said by ornithologists, we doubt very much. There would have been plenty of time to develop into a regular breeder before every one shot the hoopoe down, but in spite of assertions to the contrary, there is no proof that the hoopoe was more frequent in olden times than it is now. Where this bird breeds it is well known, and yet Dr. Muffet, who died in 1590, wrote : ' Houpes were not thought by Dr. Turner to be found in England, yet I saw Mr. Serjeant Goodrons kill one of them in Charingdon Park, when he did very skilfully and happily cure my Lord of Pembroke at Ivychurch ' (see Harting, Handbook of British Birds, p. 115). The old MS. in Dinton Hall shows an excellent figure of the bird, said to be cock and hen, the latter however being evidently a young bird. The following note is added : ' Hoop or dung bird. Shot by William Lee of Ford 1760. The vulgar in country esteem it a forerunner of some calamity. It visits these islands frequently but not at stated seasons, neither does it breed with us.' Now this is exactly what is the case now, for the instances in which it has bred are few and far between and not the rule. A regular breeding bird is never considered ' by the vulgar in country to be a forerunner of some calamity.'
88. Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn.
Very frequent. Eggs are known to us as having been taken in nests of hedge-sparrows, reed-warblers and pipits in Buckinghamshire, but we have had no time for egg-hunting.
89. White or Barn-Owl. Strix flammea, Linn.
(The more exact name of the west European barn-owl, or, as it is correctly called, white owl in opposition to the typical S. flammea, with a brown under-surface is S. flammea kirchhoffi, Brehm. See Novit. Zool, 1800, p. 533.)
Breeds commonly and is found throughout the year. Though nesting in various sorts of buildings, especially old towers, the majority are probably now nesting in this county in hollow trees, and we have so often flushed them, at all seasons, from thick plantations of young trees, that we think it may excep- tionally nest there perhaps in old nests or rabbit holes, as long-eared and little owls do. Clark Kennedy mentions as many as nine eggs being taken from a tree in Burnham Beeches ; and near Tring as many as eleven eggs have been found in one nest. In April 1893 Mr. Grossman found a bird of this species sitting on one of its own eggs and two stock dove eggs in a hole in a tree at Newton Blossomville.
90. Long-eared Owl. Asia otus (Linn.).
Locally found over the county, but only in wooded parts and especially in fir-plantations, where it deposits its eggs in old nests.
91. Short-eared Owl. Asia accipitrinus (Pallas).
Frequently called the woodcock owl. A common visitor in autumn and winter, though very rare in some years.
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