BIRDS. 137 



"Take rauens bryddes all quyke oute of here neste and 

 loke yot ye touche not the erth nor yot yei coimnen in none 

 hous and brenne him in a neu potte all to powdir and gif it 

 ye seke man to drynnke." 



Or in modern fashion : 



" Take raven's birds (young) alive out of her nest, and look 

 that you touch not the earth nor yet come into any house, 

 and burn him in a new pot, and give it to the sick man to 

 drink." 



" Any old thing " did for sick people in those 

 days, and the custom dies hard. 



Among the birds on my list the kingfisher is 

 most pleasantly interwoven in myth and song 

 and story. The old Greeks had it that Halcyone 

 was a daughter of vEolus. Her husband was 

 drowned in the JEgean Sea and as she wandered 

 on the shore she saw afar the dead body of her 

 husband. The gods in pity changed her into a 

 kingfisher, and her husband shared the same 

 happy fate. Halcyon means brooding on the 

 sea, and it was pretended that kingfishers made 

 floating nests on the sea, and during fourteen 

 days while the eggs were hatching the winds 

 went down ; and these were " Halcyon days. " 

 The older English poets often allude to this 

 myth. Dray ton has it thus : 



" The halcyon whom the sea obeys 

 When she her nest upon the water lays." 



