THE KINGFISHER 



159 



old Greeks, and is coiiiieeted with one of those beautifnl 

 legends that their poets Icn^ed to rei)ea:t in eciuall}' heantifnl 

 verse that some of you will read one day. Ont of that 

 story arose the belief that for fourteen days the stormy 

 winds refrained from disturl)ino- the calm of the blue sunlit 



THE BUFF LAUCniNG KINI IFJSIIKK, 



Photogri'i jih 1nj'\ 



[W. S. Belu'.ihok, F.Z.S. 



seas, where the little Kingfishers were l)eing hatclied in a 

 floating nest. 



It was only a pretty fancy ; but }'0U will find it peeping 

 out in many a page of tliose old A\'riters, as in one of the 

 shepherd songs of the Sicilian poet Theocritus, wliich Mr. 

 Andrew Lang has tinned into nuisical Englisli i)rose : 

 "The Halc\'(tns will lull the waves, and lull tlie deep, and 



