THE KINGFISHER'S NEST. 
449 
for him incessantly, and eventually follows him ; but, just before her 
death, she utters a plaintive song, ceyx, ceyx, ceyx, repeating it frequently, 
and then subsiding into silence. We do not desire that others or our- 
selves should hear that song, for it is a presage of misfortune and of death. 
Such is the credulous narrative of old Gessner, compiled from the 
wondrous stories of the ancients. It is curious that he should have 
been content with implicitly recording them, when a little well-directed 
observation would have convinced him of their folly. But it is still 
more curious that many of them should have been handed down to 
modern times. Our ancestors believed that after death this remark- 
able bird was useful in warding off the lightning, in indicating concealed 
treasures, in endowing the person who bore him with grace and beauty, 
in creating an atmosphere of peace in a house, in spreading calm over the 
sea, in attracting fishes, and prospering the fisheries. A tolerable cata- 
logue of blessings to be procured from one dead bird ! Why were people 
ever without such a talisman ? Even in the present day certain Asiatic 
tribes, such as the Tartars and the Ostiaks, repeat similar fancies from 
mouth to mouth ; ascribe to the bird's beak therapeutical virtues, and 
believe in his feathers as a love-philtre ! 
The kingfisher frequents the neighbourhood of fresh and limpid 
streams and rivers, preferring those which flow in the shadow of the 
great forests, or bathe with their waters the drooping boughs of the 
willow. When the bank is dry, steep, and bare of herbage, offering no 
facility to rat, weasel, or other carnivore, he and his mate prepare to fix 
their nest. About fifteen or twenty inches below the margin he exca- 
vates a circular hollow, fully two inches in diameter, and two to three 
feet in depth. This burrow or tunnel, like the sand-martin's, always 
inclines upward. The mouth is bifurcated, and the opposite extremity 
terminates in a rounded cavity or chamber three inches high, and five 
to six inches broad. The roof of this cavity is very smooth ; the floor 
is very dry, and lined with fish-bones. Upon the fish-bones the female 
lays her eggs, six or seven in number, relatively very large, almost 
round, and of a lustrous white. 
In working at this burrow or tunnel the kingfisher spends two or 
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