THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 285 



One of the most hardy inhabitants of our fens, the 

 water-hen {Fulim cliloropus), awakens surprise by the form 

 and elegance of the nest which she plants near their edge. 

 These nests are so many little altars raised above the 

 ground, and crowned by an arbour of reeds, the bent 

 leaves of which form an elegant little vault of verdure 

 above the brood. 



It has often been repeated in old works on natural his- 

 tory, that the reed Avarbler {Motacilla arundinacea) fixes 

 its nest, made of interlaced grass, to the weeds, and that 

 the elegant cradle, filled with the young, floats on the sur- 

 face of the river, rising and falling with the length of its 

 aquatic support, following the movements of the water, 

 and always swimming on the surface to preserve the young 

 from shipwreck. 



The nest of the warbler displays an ingenious struc- 

 ture, and that is all. It is formed of tangled grass, and is 

 always fixed near the top of three stems of the common 

 reed. It is in this that the pretty little female hatches her 

 eggs in security. But its nest neither rises nor falls upon 

 the tripod of plants which it binds closely, and if it did it 

 would not float, and the water would drown the brood. 

 So that here is an error to be set right. 



All authors of antiquity relate the charming fable of 

 the floating-nest of the Halcyon. It was towards the 

 setting of the Pleiades, according to their account, that 

 the bird of the storm built it. Then the murmur of the 

 waves ceased, and the winds grew silent, in order that the 

 work of God might be accomplished on a tranquil sea. 

 These were the beautiful days so rare at the winter solstice 

 which the pilots called "the days of the Halcyon." 



"These nests," says Pliny, "are worthy of admiration; 

 they have the shape of a ball, and resemble a large sponge. 



