natural history. 
145 
feafon very far advanced. S)ie had feven eggs 
each time. The fidelity of the male exceeds 
even that of the turtle. While the hen is 
fitting, and during the helplefs ftate of her 
callous brood, he fupplies her with lidi, 
which he takes with the greateft expcrtncfs, 
and in large quantities ; infomuch, that at 
thi-s feafon, flie, contrary to moll other birds, 
is fat, and in fine feather. 
Several writers hav^e confounded the hal- 
cyon with the king fiflier. The halcyon, it 
is laid, breeds in May, in the banks of ftreams, 
near the fea ; after the firfl: hatch is reared, 
it returns to lay again in the fame neft. 
Pliny and Ariftotle fay, that the halcyon 
is common in the leas of Sicily ; that it lits 
only a few days, in the depth of winter, 
in a neft that fwims on the fea ; during which 
time, it is faid, the mariner may fail with 
the greateft fafet)^ But another author, 
with more probability, fays, that the little 
halcyon bird is found on the fliores and rocks 
op the Mediterranean, near Sicily ; that, 
at the latter end of fummer, flic builds a 
neft, witli fifti bones and fea weeds, fo en- 
vious and imprcgnaiile, as to fwim and liatcli 
her young on the fen, which at that time 
's particuhjrly cairn and ferene. Tliis has 
given nlc to a proverbial faying, when we 
slhule to any particular period of our lives, 
whcp.in we liavc experienced uninterrupted 
tappinefi, '"■hich are called halcyon days. 
N BillDS 
