ALCEDO IPSIDA. 229 1 



before they flew. In another nest, in July, the two old birds 

 were captured, along with four young ones. In both of these 

 nests the floors were strewed with moist and fetid pellets of 

 fish bones ; the young ones sitting upon the sand, intermixed 

 with a small quantity of fibrous roots, surrounded by pellets of 

 fish bones. On entering its nest the kingfisher makes a direct 

 shoot into the hole from a bough on the other side of the 

 stream ; but sometimes they have their nest away from water. 

 While workmen were digging the foundations of a house, a 

 considerable distance from water, they came upon a nest with 

 eggs, built in the gravelly side of a hole from which the roots 

 of a tree had been taken. They will sometimes build in the 

 banks of a pond within 20 yards of a farmhouse, close to byres, 

 piggeries, and all the bustle of a farm-yard. Although it remains 

 with us all year, it is like the robin, a local migrant ; shifts to 

 certain localities in spring to carry on Nature's law of life and 

 love. They leave the larger streams in autumn and go to the 

 brooks, as robins and tits in winter leave the woods and draw 

 towards the dwellings of man. Sometimes on wing it emits a 

 shrill note, but it has no song. It feeds on small fishes, leeches, 

 and aquatic insects. It swallows the fishes entire, but, like the 

 owl, disgorges the indigestible parts by the mouth in pellets ; 

 hence the materials for their nests. It was the halcyon of the 

 ancients, and was worshipped by the Druids, and " halcyon 

 days" were so-called from the fable that its nest was made of fish 

 bones by sea fairies to allay storms, and that while it sat on its 

 eggs the sea was as still as a pond. Hence with us " Our 

 Halcyon Days" means peace and tranquillity. But, like all the 

 objects of ancient worship, many fables regarding this bird, 

 besides hushing the winds and stilling the sea while incubating 

 were wrapped up in the swaddling clouds of superstition. Even 

 wise Shakespeare alludes to the popular notion that if the skin 

 of a kingfisher was hung up by a thread the bill would point 

 to the direction from whence the wind blew. He says — 



"They turn their halcyon beaks 

 With every gale, and vary of their masters, 

 As knowing nought, like dogs, but following." 



And, in King Henry VI., he makes Joan of Arc say to the 

 Dauphin of France — 



" This night the siege assuredly I'll raise ; 

 Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, 

 Since I have entered into these wars." 



Aristotle was the chief authority of the ancient legend, that 



