The Zoologist — January, 1867. 533 



A new version of an old proverb. So, in ' Grange's Garden,' 4to, 1577, 



" Conteut yourself as well as I, 

 Let reason rule your minde, 

 As cuckoldes come by destinie, 

 So cuckowcs sing by kinde." 



Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida). 



" It was formerly believed that during the time the halcyon or king- 

 fisher was engaged in hatching her eggs, the water, in kindness to her, 

 remained so smooth 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 St. Martin's summer, halcyon days.'' 



Henry VI., Part T. 



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,' speaks of rogues who 



" Turn tbeir halcyon beaks 

 Witb every gale and vary of tbeir masters." 



And after Shakespeare, Marlowe, in his 'Jew of Malta,' says: 



"But how now stands the wind? 

 Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill ? " 



Swallow {Hirundo rustica). 



"The swallow follows not summer more willingly than we your lordship, nor more 

 willingly leaves winter, such summer birds are men.'' 



Timon of Athens, Act iii. Scene 6. 

 " Swallows have built 

 In Cleopatra's sails their nests; the augurs 

 Say, they know not, they cannot tell, look grimly, 

 And dare not speak their knowledge." 



Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv. Scene 10. 

 " And I have horse will follow where the game 

 Makes way and run like sivallows on the plain." 



Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Scene 2. 



Those who have watched the swallows upon a dull day, skimming 

 low along the ground, and seeming almost to touch it, although 



