158 THE BOOK OF BIRDS 



bird to slip through. This tunnel sometimes runs inward 

 for as much as three feet, and leads to a round cavity 

 which is the nursery. Here the half-dozen white eggs are 

 laid on a very "messy" floor, littered with fish bones old 

 and new, and other ill-smelling refuse. 



How in the world the brilliantly dressed family manages 

 to keep itself so spick and span, while using such an ex- 

 ceedingly dirty refuge, it is hard to explain. For which of 

 us has ever seen a Kingfisher with plumage "the worse 

 for wear ? " 



Before I have done talking about the Kingfisher of our 

 own country, I must mention one or two curious old fancies 

 that our forefathers held concerning this bird. 



One was that if a dead Kingfisher or Halcyon, as it was 

 often called, was hung up under the roof or ceiling, it 

 would always turn its breast in the direction from which 

 the wind was blowing. The belief was common even in 

 the days of Queen Elizabeth, and one great English poet 

 who wrote a little while before Shakespeare, Christopher 

 Marlowe, makes one of the people in his play. The Jeiv of 

 J/alta, say, 



" But how now stands the wind ? 

 Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill?" 



Wiser folk, even then, laughed at such a silly notion ; but 

 it survived down to Queen Victoria's reign, and perhaps 

 even now has not quite died out in some out-of-the-way 

 villages and farmhouses. 



Another queer fancy was, that by putting the dead 

 body of one of these birds into a wardrobe or clothes-chest, 

 it would ensure protection from moths. A still bolder 

 superstition pronounced the wearing of a single feather 

 from this bird to be a reliable charm against lightning ! 



The name Halcyon carries us back to the days of the 



