462 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct 



cold to warm climates. On the contrary, voyagers 

 from sultry to cold climates require the combus- 

 tion of more carbon in their lungs to sustain the 

 average temperature of blood heat. Indeed, the 

 sensation of declining warmth is so immediately 

 attendant on a diminished supply of food that 

 the terms cold and hunger have become associ- 

 ated together, and the phrase starving with cold, 

 has lately been introduced into popular language 

 in these countries. 



Numerous facts tend to demonstrate that a vig- 

 orous and healthful condition of the animal me- 

 chanism can only be sustained by a due rela- 

 tive apportionment of the atoms of carbon and 

 hydrogen, presented in the thin membranous 

 air vessels of the lungs to the contact and union 

 with due relative apportionment of the atoms of 

 oxygen inhaled at every breath, and by the appli- 

 ances of non-conducting clothing, to prevent the 

 too rapid propagation of heat from the body. 

 And thus the mechanical motive power of the vi- 

 tal agency of "life" truly subsists by the combus- 

 tion of carbon, in accordance with the emblem- 

 atical flame of the lamp, which was once lighted 

 in every tomb by a classic and superstitious peo- 

 ple, as allegorically representing the bright spirit 

 which, for a brief time, animates the body, and 

 then vanishes forever, like the quivering and ex- 

 piring flame. — Canadian Agriculturist. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 O B N I T H O L O G Y . 

 BY S. P. FOWLER. 



The belted kingfisher has long been known in 

 the United States, and until the annexation of 

 new territory to the union, was the only species. 

 But since the admission of Texas, a handsome 

 little bird, called the Texan green kingfisher, has 

 been discovered, (Ceryle Americana,) (Omelin,) 

 which may readily be distinguished, by its small 

 size and different plumage, from the common or 

 belted kingfisher. The bird under consideration 

 was known to the ancients by the name of Hal- 

 cyon, and many fabulous stories are told of it, by 

 the early writers. They supposed that it built 

 its nest upon the surface of the sea, amongst the 

 foam of the waves, and that it had the power of 

 calming the troubled deep during the period of 

 incubation. They only sat on their floating nest 

 a few days, and during that short period, which 

 was in the depth of winter, the mariner might, 

 they said, sail in perfect security. Hence those 

 days were called Halcyon days. There is a more 

 modern fancy in regard to the kingfisher, which 

 supposes that this bird, when stuffed and hung 

 up overhead in a room, by a thread, will point 

 the direction of the wind, after the manner some- 

 what of a dog vane. M. Du Pratz, in his his- 

 tory of Louisiana, says : "The kingfisher, it is 

 well known, goes always against the wind, but 

 perhaps few people know that it preserves the 

 same property, when it is dead. I, myself, hung 

 a dead one by a silk thread, directly over a sea 

 com}M.ss, and I can declare it as a fact, that the 

 bill was always turned towards the wind." Shaks- 

 peare, when speaking of sycophants, alludes to 

 these fabulous notions, where he says they 



"Turn their Halcyon beaks, 



With every gale and vary of their masters." 



Mr. Cassin says in his Birds of America, the 

 family of kingfishers embraces about ninety spe- 

 cies, of which seventy-seven are in the collection 

 of the Philadelphia academy. The habits of the 

 belted kingfisher are well described by our orni- 

 thologists, and the readers of the 7^. E. Farmer 

 can consult them if they choose. I notice some 

 of them speak of their nests being composed of 

 a few sticks and feathers, but those eggs which 

 I have examined were laid upon the bare earth. 

 Their solitary and pisciverous habits, in the es- 

 timation of some persons, render them unfit 

 themes for rural composition,but the bird really 

 gives beauty and interest to the scenery around 

 our mountain streams, and inland lakes, which 

 it visits. And if the kingfisher has nothing par- 

 ticularly interesting in its general appearance, 

 which, I am ready to admit, is grotesque, or in 

 its note, which would probably remind a citizen 

 of a watchman's rattle at midnight, calling for 

 aid to secure a burglar, it certainly at least pos- 

 sesses one good trait of character, that of troub- 

 ling no one, which is more than can be said of 

 many of our birds. It likewise has the commen- 

 dable habit of minding its own business, which is 

 singularly honest and legitimate, not to say 

 apostolic — that of fishing. And well may we 

 quote and apply honest Izaak Walton's lines to 

 our bird : — 



"O, the gallant fisher's life, 



It is the best of any ; ^ 



'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, 

 And 'tis belov'd by many : 



Other joyes 



Are but toyes ; 



Only this 



Lawful is : 



For our skill 



Breeds no ill, 

 But content and pleasure." 



The kingfisher is not confined to our inland 

 waters, but is seen also on the sea-coast, around 

 the harbors and rivers that empty into the ocean, 

 diligently engaged in fishing in the shallows about 

 their shores. And there is probably no bird bet- 

 ter known to the boy, who resorts to the salt 

 water to bathe or fish, than the kingfisher ; and 

 when his object of pursuit, the catching of min- 

 nows or tomcods, is the same, how often has he 

 been surprised by the sudden approach of this 

 bird, in its gliding flight and rattling churr. 

 How often has he seen it plunge into the stream 

 after a fish, and having caught it in his bill, re- 

 turn to its stand, a post of a water fence, and 

 swallow the glittering prize headformost, and 

 shake its head to clear its crest from the brine, 

 and perhaps proud of the capital dive it made. 

 And how often has the boy, unobserved as he 

 was fishing from the sedgey bank, continued to 

 watch the feathered fisher, forgetful of the many 

 good bites at the end of his line, and viewing 

 with astonishment the strange behavior of the 

 bird, who is apparently choking with the fish it 

 has just swallowed, when after much shaking of 

 the head, gasping and violent renchings, it 

 throws up a bundle of fi.sh bones ! But our bird 

 is in no particular danger from being choked with 

 its food, neither does it suffer from a bad or im- 

 perfect digestion, as we might ignorantly sup- 

 pose, when viewing its most singular motions on 

 its perch, where sitting by the hour together it 

 digests its food and ejects the bones of the fish 

 it has swalloFed, in the form of pellets. These 



