GREEK FABLE OF THE ALCYON. 
447 
condition are soft and flejiible, and afford as yielding a couch as a bed 
of rose-leaves. 
We may observe, in passing, that a bird of very different character, 
the crested lophaetus, which is found in the upper Nile Valley, rejoices 
in a very similar nest ; building it among the green boughs, and lining 
it with soft wool and softer feathers. 
THE KINGFISHER. 
Another burrowing bird is the kingfisher, the classical Alcyon, of 
which so many pleasant fables were told by poets and naturalists. Thus 
says the credulous Gessner: — The Greeks named the kingfisher Alcyon, 
because he lives in the sea. He is little known; which is not astonish- 
ing, for we see him but seldom, and only in April or in the rays of the 
winter sun. When he has flown once round a ship, he departs immedi- 
ately, and returns to it no more. The male is named cuylus and ceyx. 
In Plutarch's opinion he is the wisest and most remarkable of all marine 
animals ! To what nightingale, he asks, can we compare his song, to 
what swallow his agility, to what dove his conjugal faith, to what bee 
his industry ? The construction of his nest is a marvel of ingenuity, 
for the alcyon employs in it no other tool than his beak : he builds 
it like a ship, and in such wise that the waves cannot submerge it; 
the bones of fish he twines and laces together; some he arranges 
horizontally to serve as the base, others he raises up along the sides, 
to others he gives a circular sweep ; and the whole nest he lengthens 
out like a swift galley. And when he has terminated this work, 
he labours at the consolidation of the exterior ; the waves beat against 
and penetrate the sides, but the bird toils on, and renders it so solid 
that it can with difficulty be broken by blows from a stone or a bar 
of iron. The opening of this nest is wonderful ; it is made in such a 
manner that none but the kingfisher himself can enter. For all other 
birds it is completely invisible. The water is unable to gain admis- 
sion, because the material of which the nest is formed swells like a 
sponge, and in swelling closes up every issue. However, when the 
bird desires to enter, he compresses this substance, expels the water 
it has absorbed, and makes his way into the interior without difficulty. 
