White-breasted Kingfisher. 

 ( Halcyon smyrnensis. ) 



XV. THE^KINGFISHER. 



tc On the shore 



The halcyons loved oj Thetis spread their wings. " 

 Virgil. 



THERE seems to be some reason for suspecting that the 

 goddess's pets were terns, not Kingfishers after all ; but 

 nevertheless Aristotle describes a bird as at any rate one 

 sort of ' ' halcyon ' ' which certainly could not have been 

 anything else but a Kingfisher. Moreover, in various 

 parts of its wide range across the Old World the Kingfisher 

 often finds itself on the shore and takes kindly enough to 

 a diet of salt-water fish and shrimps. But it is by rights 

 a haunter of trees overhanging fresh water ; its little coral 

 feet, with the front toes joined together by skin, are better 

 F, BC 6* 



