NOVEMBER 229 



for he is as hoarse as a wooden rattle. He 

 may leave us any day now for his long, 

 lonely flight into warmer regions. Most 

 of our birds are sociable, but this fellow has 

 been so unneighborly all through the fishing 

 season that he cannot bring himself to travel 

 with any one now. 



There is, I believe, a record of kingfishers 

 living in a colony out in Illinois, but there 

 everybody is sociable. 



HALCYON DAYS 



In the countries north of the Mediterra- 

 nean there are a few weeks in midwinter 

 when the weather grows particularly balmy 

 and pleasant, somewhat in the manner of our 

 own Indian summer. It is at this time, 

 so the fable runs, that the kingfishers build 

 their nests, floating them upon the sea, 

 and in them hatching out their young. 

 Meanwhile iEolus, the god of the winds, 

 tempers and restrains the breezes lest they 

 disturb these mating birds. For was not 

 his own daughter, Halcyon, changed into 

 a kingfisher when she joined her ship- 



