BIRDS. 433 



Of this bird it lias been said, that she built her nest on the 

 water, and thus, in a few days, hatched and produced her young. 

 But, to be uninterrupted in this task, she was said to be pos- 

 sessed of a charm to allay the fury of the waves ; and during this 

 period the mariner might sail with the greatest security. The 

 ancient poets are full of these fables ; their historians are not 

 exempt from them. Cicero has written a long poem in praise 

 of the halcyon, of which there remain but two lines. Even the 

 emperor Gordian has written a poem on this subject, of which 

 we have nothing remaining. These fables have been adopted 

 each by one of the earliest fathers of the church. " Behold," says 

 St Ambrose, " the little bird, which in the midst of winter lays 

 her eggs on the sand by the shore. From that moment the 

 winds are hushed ; the sea becomes smooth ; and the calm con- 

 tinues for fourteen days. This is the time she requires ; seven 

 days to hatch, and seven days to foster her young. Their Crea- 

 tor has taught these little animals to make their nest in the 

 midst of the most stormy season, only to manifest his kindness 

 by granting them a lasting calm. The seamen are not ignorant 

 of this blessing ; they call this interval of fair weather their hal- 

 cyon days ; and they are particularly careful to seize the oppor- 

 tunity, as they then need fear no interruption." This, and a 

 hundred other instances, might be given of the credulity of man- 

 kind with respect to this bird ; they entered into speculations 

 concerning the manner of her calming the deep, the formation of 

 her nest, and her peculiar sagacity ; at present we do not specu- 

 late because we know, with respect to our king-fisher, that most 

 of the facts are false. It may be alleged, indeed, with some 

 show of reason, that the halcyon of the ancients was a different 

 bird from our king-fisher ; it may be urged, that many birds, 

 especially on the Indian ocean, build a floating nest upon the 

 sea ; but still the history of the ancient halcyon is clogged with 

 endless fable ; and it is but an indifitrent method to vindicate 

 falsehood, by showing that a part of the story is true.* 



* Every schoolboy is acquainted with the story in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 

 fif Ccyx, kin^of Magnesia, lining shipwrpckod, and of his queen, Ali-yoiie 

 (fabled to be the daughter of the wind,) who flung herself from a cliff over, 

 hanging the sea, that she might be drowned :i3 well as her hiisbiuid ;— hut, 

 instead of perishing, both were changed into kingfishers : as Drydeu (fives it, 

 " The gods their shape to winter birds translate. 

 But both obnoxious to their former fate. 

 III. 2 O 



