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HALCYONIDE. 



It was formerly believed tlmt during the time tlic Halcyon or- 

 Kingfisher was engaged in hatching her 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 storms or tempests ; this period was therefore 

 called by Pliny and Aristotle the Halcyon Days. It was 

 even supposed that the Kingfisher had power to quell the 

 storm ; and in reference to the dangerous situation of the 

 female when sitting in her water-bound nest, Dryden, in his 

 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, has the lines — 



" Her sire at length is kind. 



Calms every storm, and hushes every wind." 



Theocritus, a Greek pastoral poet, as translated by Fawkes, 

 has also the following line — 



" May Halcyons smooth the waves and calm the seas. 



W. Browne, as quoted by Mr. Fennell, writes — 



" Blow, but gently blow fayre winde, 

 From the forsaken shore. 

 And be as to the Halcyon kinde, 

 Till we have ferried o'er. 



Shakspeare refers to the supposed influence of the Kingfisher 

 in the First Part of Henry the Sixth — 



" Expect Saint INIartin's summer, halcyon days." 



Cowper is perhaps the latest poet who has referred to these 

 fancies in the following couplet — 



" As firm as the rock and as calm as the flood, 



Where the peace-loving Halcyon deposits her brood." 



But this was not the only power attributed to the Kingfisher; 

 it was also supposed that the dead bird carefully balanced 

 and suspended by a single thread, would always turn its 



