Crass. KINGFISHER; 
fecurity; for which reafon they were ftiled, Halcy- 
on days*. 
Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore feptem 
Incubat Halcyone pendentibus zquore nidis : 
‘Tum via tuta maris: ventos cuftodit, et arcet 
fEolus egreffu. Ovid. Met. lib. XI. 
Alcyone comprefs’d, 
Seven days fits brooding on her watery neft 
A wintry queen ; her fire at length is kind, 
Calms every ftorm and hufhes every wind. Dryden. 
In after times, thefe words expreffed any feafon 
of profperity : thefe were the Halcyon days of the 
poets; the brief tranquillity; the /eptem placidi dies 
of human life. 
The poets alfo made it a bird of fong: Virgil 
feems to place it in the fame rank with the Linuet : 
Littoraque Halcyonem refonant, & Acanthida dumi. 
Georg. Ill. 338. 
And Sihus Italicus celebrates its mufic, and its float- 
ing nett: 
Cum fonat Halcyone cantu, nidofque natantes 
Immota geftat fopitis Auctibus unda, 
Lib. XIV. 275. 
But we fufpect that thefe writers have transfer- 
red to our fpecies, the harmony that belongs to 
* Arift. bift. an. 541. Plin. lib. x. c..32. lib. xvili. c..24- 
Arnuoveras nuegon Of the former; and dics halcyonides of the 
latter. 
$2 the 
Q5E 
