43 
England, but in consequence of its shy habits and rapid flight is 
not often well observed except as a passing flash of bright blue. 
In April the bird makes a hole in a bank, or uses one already made, 
and makes a nest of fish bones at the bottom of it. But in ancient 
times its nest were supposed to float on the top of the sea, and 
there was a legend that when the Kingfishers were making them, 
fine weather was always allowed to prevail, the water in kindness 
to them remaining so smooth and calm, that the mariner might 
venture on the sea with the happy certainty of not being exposed 
to storms or tempests. 
Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem 
Incubat alcyone pendentibus z#quore nidus.” 
Ovid, Met. xi. 745. 
And, through seven calm days in the the winter time, sits the 
Kingfisher, whilst the nests are floating on the sea. 
As the ancient name for the bird was ‘“ halcyon” or “ aleyon,” 
this period was called by Pliny and Aristotle “the halcyon days,” 
and so Shakespeare 
“ Expect Saint Martin’s summer, halcyon days.” 
And a Kingfisher used to be suspended by a thread with extended 
wings in order to show the direetion of the wind like a weathercock. 
In King Lear we have rogues who 
“Turn their halcyon beaks 
With every gale and vary of their masters,” 
and after Shakespeare, Marlowe in his “‘ Jew of Malta ’’ writes— 
“But how now stands the wind ?— 
Into what corner peers my halcyon’s bill ? 
I shall now bring this rambling paper to a close, just saying that 
f hope at a future time to read another, touching on the more 
familiar birds that we have about us, such as Robins, Wrens, 
Titmice, Starlings, Blackbirds, and some of the Finches. 
DecemeeR ilrH, 1889. 
An exceedingly interesting lecture on the Breathing Organs of 
Insects was given by Mr. Horsnaill, Secretary to the Dover Field 
Club. It was illustrated by a large collection of diagrams and 
specimens, and preparations were afterwards exhibited under 
several microscopes, kindly brought by Colonel Le Griee, Messrs. 
Kerr, Peden, and others. A vote of thanks was accorded to the 
lecturer, and a hope was expressed that the Dover and Folkestone 
Societies, would be co-workers for the district, and mutual helpers 
to each other. 
