THE KINGFISHER 133 



then the supplementary portion of its nest, the materials being 

 shelly matter and spines, whence derived is unknown ; but the 

 principal substance employed is fishbones. During the progress 

 of the work the careful bird several times tests its buoyancy by 

 actual experiment, and when satisfied that all is safe, launches 

 its future nursery on the ocean. However turbulent might have 

 been the condition of the water previously to this event, thenceforth 

 a calm ensued, which lasted during the period of incubation ; and 

 these were ' Halcyon days ' [Haley omdes dies), which set in seven 

 days before the winter solstice, and lasted as many days after. 

 What became of the young after the lapse of this period is not 

 stated, but the deserted nest itself, called halcyoneum, identical, 

 perhaps, with what we consider the shell of the echinus, or sea-urchin, 

 was deemed a valuable medicine.-^ 



The real nest of the Kingfishet is a collection of small fish-bones, 

 which have evidently been disgorged by the old birds. A portion 

 of one which I have in my possession, and which was taken about 

 twenty years since from a deep hole in an embankment at Deepdale, 

 Norfolk, consists exclusively of small fish-bones and scraps of the 

 shells of shrimps. A precisely similar one is preserved in the British 

 Museum, which is well worthy the inspection of the curious. It was 

 found by Mr. Gould in a hole three feet deep on the banks of the 

 Thames ; it was half an inch thick and about the size of a tea saucer, 

 and weighed 700 grains. Mr. Gould was enabled to prove that this 

 mass was deposited, as well as eight eggs laid, in the short space of 

 twenty-one days. In neither case was there any attempt made by 

 the bird to employ the bones as materials for a structure ; they 

 were simply spread on the soil in such a way as to protect the 

 eggs from damp, possessing probably no properties which made 

 them superior to bents or dry leaves, but serving the purpose 

 as well as anything else, and being more readily available, by a bird 

 that does not peck on the ground, than materials of any other 

 kind. 



The wanderer by the river's side on a bright sunny day, at any 

 season, may have his attention suddenly arrested by the sight of a 

 bird shooting past him, either up or down the stream, at so slight 

 an elevation above the water, that he can look down on its back. 

 Its flight is rapid, and the colour of the plumage so brilliant, that 

 he can compare it to nothing less dazzlingly bright than the richest 

 feathers of the peacock, or a newly dug specimen of copper ore. 

 After an interval of a few seconds it will perhaps be followed by a 

 second, its mate, arrayed in attire equally gorgeous with emerald, 

 azure, and gold. Following the course of the bird, let him approach 

 cautiously any pools where small fish are likely to abound, and he 

 may chance to descry, perched motionless on the lower branch 



^ Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 32. xxxii. cap 8. 



