64 BIRDS' NESTS. 



structed of some waterproof material, it was 

 said to be buoyed up by the waves, to be 

 drifted to and fro by the ocean currents, and 

 to have the wondrous property of creating a 

 calm to a considerable distance around it. 

 Halcyon days we read of still, though it is not 

 every one, perhaps, who is aware that the 

 term is borrowed from this beautiful little 

 bird. Some modern naturalists, too, have told 

 pretty stories about the kingfisher's nest ; they 

 do not, indeed, direct us to search for it in 

 the centre of a calm spot in the ocean, but 

 describe it as wrought together of pearly fish- 

 bones, interwoven with a skill little short of 

 miraculous. The truth, however, seems to be, 

 that the fabled bird, though prince of fisher- 

 men, is but an indifferent architect, laying its 

 eggs on a mass of half-digested fish-bones, 

 and other refuse, placed at the extremity of a 

 deep hole, which slopes upwards from the face 

 of a bank. It is even doubtful whether this 

 hole is excavated by itself, or is not rather the 



