KINGSFISHER. 37 



end, which is hollowed out, and enlarged, is found a bed of fish 

 bones, on which the eggs are laid, and the young hatched ; and it 

 is observed, that it is not the remains of the fish on which it feeds, 

 which foul the habitation, as the bird swallows the fish, bones and 

 all, and brings up the indigestible parts, like the birds of prey.* 



The Tartars and Ostiaks are said to make use of the feathers of 

 this bird as a love charm, and put the bill, feet, and skin into a purse, 

 as a preservative against misfortunes.^ The Kingsfisher, too, has 

 given rise to many fictions, to be met with among the poets, and 

 accounts of old authors : two, at least, of which we know to be 

 untrue — the one, its capability of calming the sea for a certain 

 number of days — the other, its preventing the depredation of moths 

 on woollen cloths, if kept among them in the wardrobe ; J again, 

 it is asserted, that if one of these birds is suspended by a string, 

 it will, by turning about, shew a change of weather ; but the effect 

 is produced by the string alone, which coils and uncoils according 

 to the dryness or moisture of the atmosphere. 



The more antient classical, as well as other writers, have noticed 

 the Kingsfisher. Virgil ranks it among the singing birds, and makes 

 its song to be equal with that of the Acanthis, § probably either our 

 Siskin or Linnet, if not the Goldfinch; all of which have pleasing 

 notes; but so distant is the Kingsfisher from a songster, that we 

 cannot learn that it has any note whatever beyond that of a scream, 

 frequently uttered whilst flying ; || nor were Ceyx and his wife, 

 who, according to Ovid, were changed into Alcyons, remarked for 



* Orn. Diet. f Arct. Zool. 



% It has been called Oiseau de teigne, Drapier, and Garde boutique, from the supposed 

 property of preserving woollen from being moth-eaten ; but so far from preserving them, 

 it falls a prey itself to the moth, equally with other birds. 



§ Littoraque Halcyonem resonant, et Acanthida dumi. 



Virg. Georg. iii. 1. 338. 

 Pliny, too, talks of it as a Singing Bird. — See B. X. eh. 32. 



|| Col. Montagu in his Orn. Diet, says, that the young birds in the nest are continually 

 chirping, when impatient for a supply of food from their parents, insomuch as often to be- 

 tray the situation of their nest. 



