THE KINGFISHER. 373 



are exposed to the caprice and persecutions of man. When the 

 ornithologist pays attention to them in their safe retreat, where they 

 can follow without molestation the impulse of that instinct which has 

 been so bountifully given to them, he will have great cause to suspect 

 that there is many an error and many a false conclusion in the works 

 which we have at present on the habits and economy of the feathered 

 race. These errors are, no doubt, quite unintentional on the part 

 of the writers on British ornithology, and can only be corrected by 

 great care, and a frequent personal attendance at those places where 

 birds are encouraged and befriended. 



THE KINGFISHER. 



" Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem, 

 Incubat Halycone pendentibus sequore nidis." 



OVID, Met., lib. xl. 



WHEN the delicious season of spring sets in, I often get up into the 

 topmost branches of a wide-spreading oak, and there taking the " Meta- 

 morphoses" out of my pocket, I read the sorrows of poor Halcyone. 

 A brook runs close by the tree, and on its bank I have fixed a stump 

 for a resting-place to the kingfisher. On it this pretty bird will tarry 

 for a while in passing up and down, and then plunge into the stream 

 and bring out a fish. My elevated station on the oak gives me a 

 fine opportunity of admiring its back, as it darts along beneath me. 

 When the sunbeam is upon it, no words can do justice to the beauty 

 of the glowing azure which attracts the eye. 



Modern ornithologists have thought fit to remove the kingfisher 

 from the land birds, and assign it a place among the water-fowl. To 

 me the change appears a bad one ; and I could wish to see it brought 

 back again to the original situation in which our ancestors had placed 

 it ; for there seems to be nothing in its external formation which 

 can warrant this arbitrary transposition. The plumage of the king- 



