332 KINGFISHER. Class II. 



In after times, these words expressed any 

 season of prosperity : these were the Halcyofi 

 days of the poets, the brief tranquillity, the 

 septem placid'i dies of human life. 



The poets also made it a bird of song : Vir- 

 gil seems to place it in the same rank with the 

 Linnet: 



Litloraque Halcyonem resonant, et Acanlhida dumi. 



Georg. III. 338. 



And Siliiis Italicus celebrates its music, and its 

 floating nest : 



• Cum sonat Halcyone cantu, nidosque natantes 

 Immota gestat sopitis fluctibus unda. 



ii5.XIV. 275. 



But we suspect that these writers have trans- 

 ferred to our species the harmony that belongs 

 to the vocal alcedo of the philosopher, xa) ^ i^bv 



t^bsyysrcct, KaSi^dvscra eiti ruv Sovcckwv, ' 'Wnich IVCIS 



"vocal, and peixhed upon reeds. Aristotle says, 

 it is the lest of the two, but that both of them 

 have a cyanean back.f Belon labors to prove 

 the "cocal alcedo to be the rousserole, or the 

 greater reed sparrow, J a bird found in France 



* Hist. an. Sgs. 



■f 'NwT'ov Tivavsov, the color of the cyanus, or lapis lazuli. 

 X Le Rousserolle, Belun av. 221. Le Roucherolle, Brisson 



