Class II. KINGFISHER. 331 



These birds were equally favourites with 

 Thetis as with the Nereids ; 



Dilecta? Thetidi Halcyones. Virg, Georg. i. 399. 



As if to their influence these deities owed a re- 

 pose in the midst of the storms of winter, and 

 by their means were secured from those winds 

 which disturbed their submarine retreats, and 

 which agitated even the plants at the bottom 

 of the ocean. 



Such are the accounts given by the Roman 

 and Sicilian poets. Aristotle and Pliny tell us, 

 that this bird is most common in the seas of 

 Sicily ; that it sat only a few days, and those in 

 the depth of winter ; and during that period the 

 mariner might sail in full security, for which 

 reason they were stiled, Halcyon days.* 



Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore septem 

 Incubat Haley one pendentibus aequore nidis : 

 Turn via tuta maris : ventos custodit, et arcet 

 JEolus egressu. Ovid. Met. lib. XL 



Alcyone compress'd, 

 Seven days sits brooding on her watery nest 

 A wintry queen 5 her sire at length is kind, 

 Calms every storm and hushes every wind. Dry den. 



* Arist. hist. an. 641. PUn. lib. x. c 32. lib. xviii. c. 24. 

 'AXxvwsiou fysgou of the former 5 and dies halcyonides of the 

 latter. 



