ilRDS. 



435 



Btream. Whe-ri it lias found a place for its purpose, it hollows 

 out vvi'li its bill a hole about a yard deep ; or if it finds the dc 

 serted hole of a rat, or one caused by the root of a tree decay- 

 ing, it takes quiet possession. This hole it enlarges at the 



\i\g, for that the whole ocean is stayed, made stable and smoothed ^vithout 

 waves, without winds or rain, whilst the halcyon broods upon her young^, 

 which is just about the winter solstice,— so that, by her privilege, we have 

 seven days and seven nights, in the very heart of winter, wherein we may 

 sail without danger." 



Montaigne is equally undoubting in his faith as to the wonderful con- 

 struction of the halcyon's nest. " The most inquisitive into the secrets of 

 nature could nevor yet arrive at the knowledge of the wonderful fabric aJid 

 architecture wfaprewith the halcyon builds her nest for her little ones, nor 

 guess at the matter. Plutarch, who has seen and handled many of them, 

 thinks ' it is the bones of some fish, which with her beak and no other in- 

 strument she joins and binds together, interlacing them some lengthwise, 

 and others across, and adding ribs and hoops in such manner, that she forms 

 at last a round vessel fit to launch, which being done, and the building 

 finished, she carries it to the edge of the sea beach, where the waves beat- 

 ing gently against it shows her where to mend what is not well joined and 

 knit, and where better to fortify the seams that are leaky and open at the 

 beating of the waves, and on the contrary, what is well built and has had 

 due finishing, the beating of the waves does so close and bind together, that 

 it is not to be broken or cracked, by blows eitlicr of stone or iron, without a 

 great deal of trouble. What is still more to be admired is the proportion 

 and figure of the cavity within, which is composed and propnrtioned after 

 Sdch a manner that it is not possible to receive or admit any other thing 

 save the bird which built it, for to every thing else it is so impenetrable, 

 dose and shut, that nothing can enter, not even the water of the sea.' See 

 here," adds Montaigne, " a very clear description of this building, and bor. 

 rowed from a very good hand, and yet methinks it does not give a sufficient 

 light into the difficulty of this ;u-chitecture." 



To lis, sAys Mr Ueniiie in his Architecture of Birds, it appears that what 

 Plutarch took for the nest of the halcyon was simply the crustaceous covering 

 of some of the sea urchins [EcMnida), which agree in most particulars with 

 his description. Tlu' most common of the shells, perhap:!, is the edible one 

 iEcliinuf escuh'tittis) found on sea rocks neiir low-water mark, and varying 

 in fi/e from that of a small orange to nearly tluit of a cocoa-nut, ami in 

 colour from r>lmost white to reddish orange. When alive, or recent and 

 uninjured, it is covered with numerous blunt spines disposed in rows, but 

 frequently crossing each other at various angles, so as to give some colour 

 to Plutarch's notion of interlacing, and the comparison of ..Elian to basket- 

 making, while the whole crust, reiulily separating into five triangular sec. 

 tions, doubtless gave rise to the notion of " ribs and hoops," particularly as 

 these sections are themselves marked with ribs. The peculiar closure of the 

 mouth also appears to have suggested tlie wonders respecting the exclusion 

 of sea water, and the mouth (ahvays <in the under part) is funrishi'd with 

 five teeth, uol pla'cd in line nor in jaws, but disposed circularly, in a frami> 



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