166 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:4— April, 1920 



natural state. They and hundreds of our other tools, large and 

 small, are found in the equipment of numberless animals. All 

 those above mentioned are to be found in the equipment of birds. 



The woodpecker pounds himself out a home by means of his 

 chisel-shaped bill. With his long bill the himimingbird sucks 

 honey from the flower cups. The beak of the hen homy and sharp, 

 is her pick and nippers with which she finds her food, seeds and 

 insects. Mention the snipe, and you will image long legs wading 

 thru mud and water. Mention the kingfisher. What associated 

 thoughts spring to the fore? Well, it is precisely because there are 

 so many associations called into play that about the kingfisher I 

 have so much to say. 



The word, kingfisher, immediately suggests his other name, 

 halycon, more properly alcyon. Halcyon is the poetic name of the 

 kingfisher of whom the ancients fabled that it bred about the time 

 of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, and that it 

 charmed the wind and the waves so that the sea was especially 

 calm during the period. 



In 1398 Trevisa writes "On the cliffe of a ponde of Occean, 

 Alicion, a see foule, in wynter maketh her neste and layeth egges in 

 7 days and sittyth on brood . . . seven days." In 1545 

 Joye — ^" Thei saye, that in the . . . coldest tyme of the yere, 

 these halcions (making their nestes in the sea rockis or sandis) 

 wille sitte their egges and hatch forth their chickens." In 1601 

 Holland — ^"They lay and sit about mid-winter . . . and the 

 time whiles they are broodie, os called the halcyon daies; for 

 during that season the sea is calm and navigable, especially in the 

 coaste of Sicilia." In 1750 Sherstone — ^"So smiles the surface of 

 the treach'rous main as o'er its waves the peaceful halcyons play." 



So anything, any mood that is calm, quiet, peaceful, undisturbed 

 is halcyon. 



If ever admirable adjustment existed between a bird's habits 

 and its structure, it exists in the kingfisher. If ever a bird was 

 adapted for his life's work, it is the kingfisher. A young kingfisher 

 seems to grow like a potato in a cellar, all the growth going to the 

 end nearer the light. He sits looking out towards the door, and of 

 course, his face naturally all goes to beak. Everything is perfected 

 to furnish him with a big head, a spear-pointed bill, and a pair of 

 strong wings to give him a good start when he dives for fish. The 

 kingfisher is very different in form from an ordinary bird; he is 



