250 
KINGFISHER. Crass IE 
~ fury of a turbulent element during the time of its 
incubation ; for it had, at that feafon, power over — 
the feas and the winds. 
2 ~ xX ? y 
X’ Ganvoves copereivtt Ta nYuaTa, Thy TESAAGTTAY, 
oT eer ania ape sy 6 = 7 oe 
OY TE YOIOY, TOY T EVPOYV, OF ETH ATH Dune Hive 
y ~ 7 / 
A/nuvives, yaauualis Nueniot tal te wanisa 
Ogviday épinadev. Theocrit. Idyl. wi. 1. 57. 
May Halcyous fmooth the waves, and calm the feas, 
And the rough fouth-eaft fink into a breeze; 
Halcyons of all the birds that haunt the main, 
Moft lov’d and honor’d by the Nereid train. 
Fawkes. 
Thefe birds were equally favourites with Thetis 
as with the Nereids ; 
Dilettz Thetidi Halcyones. Virg. Georg. I. 399- 
As if to their influence thefe deities owed a repofe 
in the midit of the ftorms of winter, and by their 
means were fecured from thofe winds that difturb 
their fubmarine retreats, and agitated even the 
plants at the bottom of the ocean. 
Such are the accounts given by the Roman and 
Sicilian poets. Ariftotle and Pliny tell us, that this 
bird is moft common in the feas of Sicily: that it fat 
only a few days, and thofe in the depth of winter ; 
and during that period the mariner might fail in full 
fecurity ; 
