Class II. KINGFISHER. 320 



a fabulous age every odd substance that was 

 flung ashore received that name ; a species of 

 tubular coral, a sponge, a zoophyte, and a mis- 

 cellaneous concrete having by the antients been 

 dignified with that title from their imaginary 

 origin.* Yet much of this seems to be founded 

 on truth. The form of the nest agrees most 

 exactly with the curious account of it that 

 Count Zinanni has favored us with.f The ma- 

 terials which Aristotle says it was composed 

 of, are not entirely of his own invention. Who- 

 ever has seen the nest of the kingfisher, will ob- 

 serve it strewed with the bones and scales of 

 fish; the fragments of the food of the owner and 

 its young ; and those who deny that it is a bird 

 which frequents the sea, must not confine their 

 ideas to our northern shores, but reflect, that 

 birds inhabiting a sheltered place in the more 

 rigorous latitudes, may endure exposed ones in 

 a milder clime. Aristotle made his observa- 



* Plin. lib. xxxii. c. 8. Diosc. lib. v. c. Q4. 



•f Nidifica egli nelle ripe degli acquidotti, o de piccoli tor- 

 renti vicino al mare, formando pero il nido nei siti piu alti di 

 dette ripe, acciocche l'escrescenza delle acque non possa insi- 

 nuarsi nel di lui foro ; e fa egli detto nido incavando interna- 

 mente il terreno in tondo per la lunghezza di tre piedi, e ridu- 

 cendo il fine di detto foro a foggia di batello, tutto coperto di 

 scaglie di pesci, che restano vagamente intrecciate ; ma forse non 

 sono cosi disposte ad arte, bensi per accidente. 



