THE KINGFISHEK. 235 



requires to see very clearly, it is only at particular spots, and 

 in particular states of the weather, that its operations can be 

 successfully carried on. The water must be clear, and the 

 surface smooth ; and that is the reason why it is not found 

 upon turbulent or brawling streams, or when wind curls, rain 

 dimples, or mud darkens the waters. The days when 

 evaporation has ceased, and a storm is impending, are those 

 on which the atmosphere is most transparent, and the sur- 

 face of the water most glassy. They are, consequently, the 

 days which, above all others, are fitted for the successful 

 operations of the kingfisher ; and so are the clear blinks 

 that break out, still, warm, and shiny, when the weather is 

 unsettled, and the process of evaporation is suspended. 

 These are genuine "halcyon days;" days on which the 

 kingfisher is out and active : but the bird has, of course, no 

 more to do with the producing of them, or of the storm 

 which generally follows, than a Lapland witch has to do with 

 the producing of that fair wind which she sells to the 

 credulous mariner ; and if the delivery of which did not 

 often follow the sale, her trade would soon be at an end. 

 Her experience leads her, from present appearances, to infer 

 what is to come next, and therein the certainty of her 

 success depends on the soundness and length of her expe- 

 rience. The kingfisher, on the other hand, comes on the 

 water, because that and the atmosphere are in a certain 

 state at the time, and the Creator of the bird has made that 

 state the stimulus of the bird's instinct. The same state is 

 that which precedes rain ; but as the gay bird is more 

 easily seen than all the circumstances of the weather that 

 bring him out, the bird, which is merely one of the signs of 

 the present state of the weather, is put for that state itself, 

 and made the antecedent, or cause for the future. But 

 where kingfishers are, the prognostic drawn from them is, 

 from the very nature of their habits, a good one ; and there- 



