Crass KINGFISHER;> 
The materials which Aviftotle fays it was compofed 
of, are not entirely of his own invention. Who- 
ever has feen the neft of the kinefifher, will obferve — 
it ftrewed with the bones and fcales of fith; the 
fragments of the food of the owner and its young : 
and thofe who deny that it is a bird that frequents 
the fea, muft not confine their ideas to our northern 
fhores; but reflect, that birds that inhabit a fhel- 
tered place in the more rigorous latitudes, may 
endure expofed ones ina milder clime. Ari/fotle 
made his obfervations in the eaft: and allows, 
that the alcyon fometimes afcended rivers *; pof- 
fibly to breed: for we learn from Zinanni, that 
in his foft climate, J¢aly, it breeds in May, in banks 
of ftreams that are near the fea; and having brought 
up the firft hatch, returns to the fame place to lay 
a fecond time. 
On the foundation laid by the philofopher, fuc- 
ceeding writers formed other tales extremely abfurd ; 
and the poets, indulging the powers of imagination, 
dreffed the ftory in all the robes of romance. 
This neft was a floating one; 
Incubat halcyone pendentibus zquore nidist. © 
4 
it was therefore neceffary to place it in a tranquil 
fea, and to fupply the bird with charms to allay the 
 tiducendo il fine di detto foro a fogeia di batello, tutto co- 
perto di fcaglie di pefci, che reftano vagamente intrecciate ; 
ma forfe non fono cosi difpofte ad arte, bensi per accidente. 
* AvaSatver de re emi tes movaues Hitt. an. 1050, 
+ Ovid Met, lib. xi, 
Voz. II, S fury 
249 
