250 KINGFISHER. Class II. 



fury of a turbulent element during the time of its 

 incubation •, for it had, at that feafon, power over 

 the feas and the winds. 



ToV T£ VoloVf TOV T^ EUpOV, 0$ fiV^aTa (pvxia hiVSL' 



A^MVovEgj y'KcxvKaig "Nvi^yiia-i rat re /waXira 



O^vi^uv kipi?^^£v. Theocrit. Idyl vii. I. ^-j. 



May Halcyons fmooth the waves, and calm the feas. 

 And the rough fouth-eaft fink into a breeze ; 

 Halcyons of all the birds that haunt the main, 

 Moft lov'd and honor'd by the Nereid train. 



Fawkes, 



Thefe birds were equally favourites with 'Thetis 

 as with the Nereids j 



Dileftae Thetidi Halcyones. /^/ro-. Georg, I. 399. 



As if to their influence thefe deities owed a repofe 

 in the midil of the dorms of winter, and by their 

 means were fecured from thofe winds that difturb 

 their fubmarine retreats, and agitated even the 

 plants at the bottom of the ocean. 



Such are the accounts given by the Roman and 

 Sicilian poets. Ariftotk and Pliny tell us, that this 

 bird is mod common in the feas of Sicily : that it fat 

 only a few days, and thofe in the depth of winter ; 

 and during that period the mariner might fail in full 



fccurity ; 



