A STRANGE BIRD SIR,—There was a reference in your Country
Life column recently to a strange bird said to have been seen in Sussex, the general description (which I have not seen) coming from a headmaster.
As interested in entomology, I know how very little reliance can be placed upon descriptions made by inexperienced observers ; but I am surprised to see your distinguished con- tributor write that " woodpeckers and kingfishers alone among sizeable birds have red crowns." I thought a kingfisher's crown was dark blue, mottled with black ; and is it not possible that the rufous feathers on a kingfisher's neck and underparts may have been described as " fawn " coloured by a casual observer? But perhaps some other species than the British one is in mind. But if not, it is difficult to believe that a kingfisher would not have been recognised as such, or that anyone seeing one would have any doubts as to its identity.—Yours faithfully,
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