234 ALCYONES. 



Its ordinary motion is so rapid, and its colours so bright, 

 that when it passes, it is like a gleani of a broken rainbow 

 darting along near the surface of the waters. There are few 

 sights in quiet nature more novel and pleasing, or that one 

 wishes more to have repeated, than the first glance one gets 

 of a kingfisher, darting along some reach of a clear but placid 

 stream, which glides between soft banks, fringed with reeds 

 and bushes. If one is not tolerably well acquainted with it 

 from description, both in its hues and its habits, one is at a 

 loss whether to think it a meteor or a bird. It passes so fast, 

 and the rapid motion of the gay wings gives them so much 

 the appearance of vapour, that it is rather a puzzle ; and it 

 is said, and may be true, that its rich hues when it hovers, 

 which it often does after the manner of the hawks, attract 

 the small fishes to the surface, in the same manner as the 

 lighted torch in "burning the water," attracts the large 

 ones ; and while they are, as it were, fascinated, it darts 

 down like an arrow, and makes a certain capture, though 

 the colours can be seen from below only when the bird 

 twitches round. "When seen as it perches on some slender 

 twig overhanging the water, it has the appearance of the gay 

 flower of some rare and curious water plant ; and the bird, 

 as if conscious of the power of instant escape which is in his 

 wings which appears to be felt by most birds so furnished 

 will allow you to approach tolerably near ; and if you are 

 quiet, and do not offer violence or make a noise (for it is 

 silence that the kingfisher loves, more than seclusion), you 

 may see its mode of doing business on the surface of the brook. 



Its flight is rather low, and straight forward, but its eye 

 must be remarkably keen, because it will, in the most rapid 

 flight, halt, hover for a time, and then dart down, seize a 

 little fish, a leech, or even a worm or slug by the bank, and 

 instantly land with it. As it thus not only fishes wholly by 

 the sight, but from the comparative smallness of its prey ; 



