TUE KINGFISHER. 347 



three feet, I brought out some freshly-cast bones of fish, convincing me that I was right in my 

 surmise. The day following I again visited the spot with a spade, and, after removing nearly two 

 feet square of the turf, dug down to the nest without disturbing the passage which led to it. Here I 

 found four eggs placed on the usual layer of fish-bones. These I removed with care, and then 

 replaced the earth, beating it down as hard as the bank itself, and restored the turfy sod. A fort- 

 night after the bird was seen to leave the hole again, and my suspicions were aroused that she had 

 taken to her old breeding quarters a second time. I again visited the place on the twenty-first day 

 from the date of my former exploration, and upon passing the top of my fly rod up the hole, found, 

 not only that it was of the former length, but that the female was within. I then took a large 

 mass of cotton-wool from my collecting-box, and stuffed it to the extremity, in order to preserve the 

 eggs from damage during my again laying it open from above. On removing the sod and digging 

 down as before, I came to the cotton-wool, and beneath it was formed a nest of fish-bones the size 

 of a small saucer, the walls of which were fully half an inch thick, together with eight trans- 

 lucent pinky-white eggs, and the old female herself. This nest I removed with the greatest 

 care ; and it is now deposited in the proper place for so interesting an object the British Museum. 

 This mass of bones, then weighing 700 grains, had been cast up and deposited by the bird and its 

 mate in the short space of twenty-one days. Ornithologists are divided in opinion as to whether the 

 fish-bones are to be considered in the light of a nest. Some are disposed to believe them to be the 

 castings and fseces of the young brood of the year, and that the same hole being frequented for a 

 succession of years, a great mass is at length formed ; while others suppose that they are deposited 

 by the parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting, in fact, a nest ; and I think, from what I 

 have adduced, we may fairly conclude this is the case : in fact, nothing could be better adapted to 

 defend the eggs from the damp earth." In ancient times there was a legend that when the King- 

 fishers made their nests which were supposed to float upon the top of the sea fine weather was 

 always allowed to prevail.* A custom used formerly to be in vogue in England of turning a 

 Kingfisher into a weathercock ; and, according to the late M. Jules Verreaux, this practice is pursued 

 in France even in the present day, where the bird is mummified and suspended by a thread with 

 extended wings in order to show the direction of the wind. Mr. Harting alludes to these superstitions 

 in his " Ornithology of Shakespeare " (p. 275). It was formerly believed that during the time the 

 Halcyon, or Kingfisher, was engaged in hatching her eggs, the water, in kindness to her, remained so 

 snlooth and calm that the mariner might venture on the sea with the happy certainty of not being 

 exposed to storms or tempests ; this period was therefore called, by Pliny and Aristotle, " the 

 halcyon days." 



"Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days." 



Henry VI., Part i., Act i., sc. 2. 



It was also supposed that the dead bird, carefully balanced and suspended by a single thread, 

 would always turn its beak towards that point of the compass from which the wind blew. Kent, in 

 King Lear (Act ii. sc. 2), speaks of rogxies who 



" Turn their halcyon beaks 

 With every gale and vary of their masters." 



And, after Shakspere, Marlowe, in his Jew of Malta, says : 



" But how now stands the wind ? 

 Into what corner peers my halcyon's hill ? " 



The Common Kingfisher measures about seven inches from the tip of his bill to the end of his 

 tail. The colour of the upper parts is blue, greener on the mantle and scapulars, and beautiful rich 

 cobalt on the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; the head is blue, barred with black, the wings blue, 

 with spots of brighter cobalt on the coverts ; in front of the eye is a spot of rufous, this being also the 

 colour of the eye-coverts and under parts; the throat is white, and there is a patch of white on 

 each side of the neck ; the cheeks and sides of the breast are blue, the bill is black, the feet 



" Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem 

 Incubat alcyone pendentibus ajquore nidis. " Ovid, Met. xi. 745. 



