GAUDY TYRANT RAIDS GARDEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 4

GAUDY TYRANT RAIDS GARDEN.

KINGFISHER TAKES PRETTY LITTLE VISITOR. A kingfisher flashes his coat of many colours in the suburban garden of Mr L. A. Stringer, Registrar of Canterbury College, Shrewsbury Street, Merivale. It is a very welcome visitor, partly because members of its species seldom honour Christchurch with a visit in these days of municipal noise and hustle, but mainly because it ornaments the garden like a jewel in a crown. A few days ago, its methods disclosed an ugly trait. Mr Stringer and his ?on found a flock of little white-eyes, ?r blighties, amongst the apples. Their presence is not resented, as the few apples they taste are well worth the pleasure of their company, but a handful of dirt was thrown into the tree to show them that they had no right to the apples. No sooner had they risen in a twitter of alarm than a kingfisher flew up from the ground and alighted on a branch. It carried in its bill a small bird, probably' one of the white-eyes. The white eye was alive, but helpless, and the kingfisher deliberately tried to kill it by repeatedly thumping it against the branch. Fearing that it would be robbed oif its meal, it flew up with its victim to the next-door neighbour's garden, where, apparently, it did the small bird to death and devoured it in peace.