24S KINGFISHER. Class IL 



fion than is ufual with that great philofopher : after 

 his defcription of the bird, follows that of its neft, 

 than which the moft inventive of the antients have 

 delivered nothing that appears at firfl: fight more 

 Nest, fabulous and extravagant. He relates, that it re- 

 fembled thofe concretions that are formed by the 

 fea-water ; that it refembled the long necked gourd, 

 that it was hollow within, that the entrance was 

 very narrow, fo that fhould it overfet the water 

 could not enter •, that it refilled any violence from 

 iron, but could be broke with a blow of the hand ; 

 and that it was compofed of the bones of the Bexov)! 

 or fea-needle *. 



The neft had medical virtues afcribed to it ; and 

 from the bird was called Hakyoneum. In a fa- 

 bulous age every odd fubftance that was flung a- 

 fhore received that name \ a fpecies of tubular coral, 

 a fponge, a zoophyte, and a mifcellaneous concrete 

 having by the antients been dignified with that title 

 from their imaginary origin f. Yet much of this 

 feems to be founded on truth. The form of the 

 neft agrees moft exadly with the curious account 

 of it that Count Zinanni has favored us with J. 



The 



* 1050. See alfo ^//««. lib. ix. c. 17. PHn.Yih. x. c. 32. 

 t Plin. lib. xxxii. c. 8. Dio/c. lib. v. c. 94, 



X Nidifica egli nelle ripe degli acquidotti, o de plccoli tor- 

 renti vicino al mare, formando pero il nido nei fiti piCi alti di 

 dette ripe, acciocche I'efcrefcenza delle acque non pofTa infi- 

 nuarli nel di lui foro ; e fa egli detto nido incavando inter- 

 namente il teireno in tondo per la lunghezza di tre piedi, e 



riducendo 



