20 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



the bird itself as the living representative of a god, "or 

 else to such a position of the bird toward a deity as to 

 fairly permit the inference that at a period still more 

 remote the bird itself was worshipped." The Poly- 

 nesian practices detailed above certainly are of very 

 ancient origin, probably coming to the islands with the 

 earliest migrants from the East Indian mainlands; and 

 the theology involved may be a lingering relic of the 

 times and ideas described in De Kay's treatise. 



To carry these matters further is not within my plan, 

 for they would lead us into the mazes of comparative 

 mythology, which it is my purpose to avoid as far as 

 possible, restricting myself to history, sayings, and allu- 

 sions that pertain to real, not imaginary, birds.* 



The distinction I try to make between the mythical and 

 the legendary or real, may be illustrated by the king- 

 fisher — in this case, of course, the common species of 

 southern Europe. Let us consider first the mythical side. 

 Alcyone, daughter of /Eolus, the wind-god, impelled by 

 love for her husband Ceyx, whom she found dead on 

 the shore after a shipwreck, threw herself into the sea. 

 The gods, rewarding their conjugal love, changed the 

 pair into kingfishers. What connection exists between 

 this, which is simply a classic yarn, and the ancient theory 

 of the nidification of this species, I do not know; but 

 the story was — now we are talking of the real bird, which 

 the Greeks and Latins saw daily — that the kingfisher 

 hatched its eggs at the time of the winter solstice in a 

 nest shaped like a hollow sponge, and thought to be 



♦Nevertheless, I have made one exception by devoting a chap- 

 ter to "a fabulous flock" of wholly fictitious birds, namely, the 

 phenix, rukh (roc), simurgh and their fellows — all hatched from 

 the same solar nest — because they have become familiar to us, by 

 name, at least, in literature, symbolism, and proverbial sayings. 



