Some Bird Myths. 173 



wore, by command of that deity, a dress worthy of 

 their fair renown. 



To even the soberest of mortals ' Halcyon Days ' 

 will suggest bygone seasons of calm and quiet ; hours 

 of peace and sunlit happiness; will carry the memory 

 back perchance to some sweet river idyll : 



' .... in some forgotten June 

 When they both were young together ; 

 Heart of youth and summer weather 

 Making all their holiday,' 



and yet perhaps forget if he ever heard of it that 

 strange myth that Pliny wrote of, and that Montaigne 

 embellished with touches of his own, how the king- 

 fisher the Halcyon of Ovid's story builds her nest 

 in the depth of winter ; and how ' the very seas .... 

 know well when they sit and breed. And the time 

 whiles they are broodie is called halcyon daies; for 

 during that season the sea is calm and navigable, 

 especially on the coast of Sicilie.' 



We smile at the credulity of an age which could 

 believe in the legend. We ourselves have no faith in 

 the old superstition ; but many a doubtful voyager 

 ' On life's dim unsounded sea ' would echo the wish 

 breathed in the tender lines of the quaint old poet : 



' Blow, but gently blow, faire winde 



From the forsaken shore ; 

 And be as to the halcyon, kinde, 

 Till we have ferried o'er.' 



