338 The Folk-Lore of Natural History. [Sess. 
herb, which has the property of restoring sight. The plant is 
the well-known Celandine (Chelidoniwm majus). Besides the 
swallow-herb there is the swallow-stone, to which wonderful 
properties have been likewise attributed in connection with 
diseases of the eye. Pliny makes mention of a swallow-stone 
which, he affirms, is found in the stomach of the swallow. In 
Brittany and in some English counties the stone is said to be 
found in the nest of the swallow. Longfellow, in “ Evangeline,” 
refers to the legend of the swallow-stone :— 
“ Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on the rafters, 
Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallow 
Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings ; 
Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the swallow !” 
THE CUCKOO. 
The cuckoo had its calendar embodied in the following 
rhyme :— 
“In April come he will ; 
In May he sings all day ; 
In June he changes tune ; 
In July away he'll fly ; 
In August go he must.” 
But the believers in hibernation had also their jingle :— 
“Seven sleepers there be,— 
The bat, the bee, the butter-flee, 
The cuckoo and the swallow, 
The kittywake and the corncraik, 
Sleep a’ in a little hollow.” 
THE KINGFISHER. 
It was a firm belief of the ancients that during the time the 
haleyon or kingfisher was engaged in hatching its eggs the 
water, in kindness to her, remained so smooth and calm that — 
the mariner might venture on the sea with the happy certainty. — 
of not being exposed to storm and tempest. This period was — 
therefore called by Pliny and Aristotle the “halcyon days.” 
It was also supposed that the dead bird stuffed, carefully 
balanced and suspended by a single thread, would always turn 
