KINGFISHER. lOI 



wonderful structures, in the shape of a ball, with the entrance a 

 little projecting but very narrow, as in large sponges. It is impossi- 

 ble to cut them with a knife, but they can be broken with a sharp 

 blow, like the dry foam of the sea. It is not known what they are 

 made of; some think of sharp spines, for they live on fish. They 

 also enter rivers. They lay five eggs." 



In the midst of all this strange medley of fact and legend, we 

 can see that he has confounded together two birds, the smaller one 

 which lives in rivers, and the larger which is the legendary bird that 

 calms the sea. It is to this last that allusions are most frequent. 



Sometimes the Kingfisher is supposed to have the power of 



quelling storms : 



Maj' Halcyons smooth the waves and calm the seas. 



Theocritus— /c^^^s VI I. y 57. 



Shakespeare notices the belief — 



Expect St. Martin's summer, Halcj'on davs. 



king Henry VI., L, S. 



It is asserted that when the dead bird, or its skin, is hung up 



by a thread, the beak will always turn to the point of the compass 



whence the wind blows : 



Or as Halcyon, with her turning breast 

 Demonstrates wind from wind and east from west. 



Stoker. 



Marlow, in his play " The Jew of Malta," I., i, says — 



But how now stands the wind, 



Into what corner peers my Halcyon's bill ? 



He breath'd his last exposed to open air. 



And here, his corpse, unbless'd, is hanging still 



To shew the change of winds with his prophetic bill. 



DBnDEy— Hind and Panther. 



In Glamorganshire the Kingfisher is still said to be hung up 

 by a thread for this purpose. (See Woolhope Transactions for 

 1869). Shakespeare also alludes to the custom when he makes 

 Kent speak of rogues and sycophants, who 



Renege, affirm, and turn their Halcyon beaks 

 With every gale and vary of their masters. 



King Lear II., 2. 



