OUR HOME BIRDS. 
211 
April until the beginning of cold weather, when he 
leaves us for more tropical climes. He gets his name 
from the peculiar band of blue, mixed with light 
brown, which passes around the upper part of his 
breast. ,, 
The children admired the handsome bird, over 
twelve inches long, with his bluish, slate-colored 
back, his collar of pure white feathers, his large 
crested head — whence his royal title — his beauti- 
ful feathers, with their black shafts variegated with 
blue under the wings, and the handsome band 
which seemed to be worn on his breast like an 
order. 
“ This kingfisher,” continued Miss Harson, “ is 
quite a peculiar bird, and very strange stories have 
been told of him both in ancient and in modern 
times by ignorant and superstitious people. The 
ancients supposed him to have control over the 
winds and waves, and asserted that his nest was 
made of glue or fish-bones, and thrown at random 
on the surface of the water, where it floated about, 
now in one place and now in another. Instead of 
this, however, it is snugly secured from the winds 
and the weather in the recesses of the earth. 
“ ‘ Neither is its head or its feathers believed, even 
by the most illiterate of our clowns or seamen, to be 
a charm for love, a protection against witchcraft, or 
