TriK VKST OF THE KlNfiFISHKH. 1 G7 



as could be held in one's hand,) which I have always taken to be the castings 

 or pellets of the old birds, rather than the foeces of the young, as I have 

 seen them in nests never tenanted by young birds, and have found them to 

 be quite white and free from excrement. 



If we are not yet quite familiar with the economy of the Kingfisher, it is 

 a pleasure to reflect that the ornithological intelligence of the age, shines in 

 striking contrast with the quaint ignorance of the first century in our christian 

 era; for my eye happened a short time since to alight on the following passage 

 in Pliny, which may prove somewhat amusing from its curious phraseology 

 and strange research: — "The Halcyones are of great name and much marked. 

 The very seas and they that saile thereupon know well when they sit and 

 breede. This very bird, so exceeding notable, is little bigger than a Sparrow: 

 for the more part of her plumage, blew, intermingled yet among with white 

 and purple feathers, having a thin small neck and long withall. There is a 

 second kind of them breeding about the sea side, differing both in quantitie 

 and also in voice; for it singcth not as the former do, which are lesser, for they 

 haunt rivers, and sing among the flagges and reeds. It is a very great chance 

 to see one of these Halcyones, and never are they seen but about the setting 

 of the Starre Virgilioe, or else neere midsumer, or midwinter when dales be 

 shortest; and the times whiles they are broodie, are called the Halcyon dales; 

 for during that season, the sea is calme and navigable, especially in the coast 

 of Sicilie. In other parts also, the sea is not so boisterous, but more quiet 

 than at other times, but surely the Sicilian Sea is very gentle, both in the 

 streights and also in the open ocean. Now about seven dales before midwinter, 

 that is to say, in the beginning of the month of December, they build: and 

 within as many dales after they have hatched. Their nests are wonderously 

 made, in fashion of a round bal, the mouth or entrie thereof standeth some 

 what out, and is very narrow, much like unto great spunges. A man cannot 

 cut and pierce the nest with sword or hatchet; but breake they will with some 

 strong knocke, like as the drie foam of the sea, and no man could ever finde 

 of what they be made." 



Another great writer of rather a later date speaks of the Kingfisher's nest 

 as follows: — "It is the bones of some fish, which with her beak, and other 

 instruments she joins together, interlacing them some lengthwise, and others 

 across, and aiding ribs and hoops in sush manner, that she forms at last a 

 round vessel fit to launch, which being done, and the building finished, she 

 carries it to the edge of the sea beach, where the waves beating against it, 

 shews her where to mend what is not well joined and knit, and where better 

 to fortifie the seams that arc leaky, and open at the beating of the waves; 

 and on the contrary, what is well built and has had due finishing, the beating 

 of the waves does so close and bind together, that it is not to be broken 

 or cracked by blows either of stone or iron without a great deal of trouble. 

 What is still more to be admired is the proportion and figure of the cavity 

 within, Avhich is composed and proportioned after such a manner that it is 



