BIRDS. i'i^ 



a long-necked gourd of the bones of the sea-needle. The bones, 

 indeed, are found there in great quantities, as well as the scales 

 of fishes ; but these are the remains of the bird's food, and by no 

 means brought there for the purposes of warmth or convenience. 



habits of this bird, lead us to remark, that it is not so rery shy and solitary 

 as it has been represented, for it has more than once allowed us to approach 

 within a few yards of the bough on wliich it was perched. Mr Jennings says 

 that it is " rarely if ever found near the habitations of man." On the con. 

 trary, we are iu the habit of seeing Icingfishers very often on the bank? of a 

 brook wliich runs past our garden, not a hundred yards from the house. A 

 kingfisher's nest was found with young last summer on ilie bank of the same 

 brook, and within gim-shot of a whole row of houses. This fact was stated 

 iu the Magazine of Natural History. Another correspondent of Mr Lou- 

 don's says, " that for the last nine years, and perhaps more, 1 have observed 

 that a pair of kingfishers have uniformly constructed their uests in a hole of 

 a bank which projects over a piece of water, on my premises, not one hun- 

 dred yards from the house." In the summer of 1828, a single kingfisher took 

 up his abode at Stamford Hill, in the immediate neighbourhood of London, 

 in a narrow garden, much frequented, and close to several houses, on occa- 

 sion of a small pond being stocked with gold-fish. The bird was frequently 

 seen perched upon an ornament in the middle of the pond watching the fish, 

 and was at last shot by the gardener from an apprehension that he would 

 destroy the young fry. The necessity for obtaining its food from streams 

 and shallow ponds causes this bird, however, to frequent secluded places. 

 The belted kingfisher of America, as we have already seen, is partial to mill, 

 dams, in defiance of the clack of the hopper, because there he finds facilitiea 

 iu watching for fish. 



It may be interesting, as a sequel to the fancies of the ancients which we 

 have noticed, to mention one or two modern superstitions respecting the 

 kingfisher. " I have once or twice," says Mrs Charlotte Smith, " seen a 

 stuffed bird of this species hung up to the beam of a cottage ceiling, and 

 imagined that the beauty of the feathers had roconmicnded it to tins sad 

 pre-eminence, till, on inquiry, I was assured that it served the purpose of a 

 weather vane ; and though sheltered from the iuunediat(! inlluence of the 

 wind, never failed to show every change by turning its beak to the quiu-ter 

 ivhence the wind blew." This was an old superstition, for Shakspearu, 

 speaking of sycophants, says, they 



" Turn their haU-yon beaks 

 With every gale and vary of their masters." 



The le.-»rned but somewhat credulous author of the ' niysicte Curiosu',' a»- 

 sert.s the same upon the testimony of his own observation. " Father Atlni- 

 niu-ius Kircher," he says, "had one of those biids sent him in a present by 

 a friend, and being disembowelled and dried, it was suspended from the ceil- 

 ing of hLs celebrated museum from KUO to l(iJ5, when 1 left Home, and 

 though all the doors and windows were shut, it constanlly turned its bill 

 towards the wind ; and this I myself observed with admiration and pleasure 

 almost evrry day f'lr the spa<-e of three years." It would Ik; usclcs.s to fol- 

 low the author in the fanciful philiii>phy by which he pretends, aft*.'r Kic> 



2 0.S 



