Halcyon the 
Kingfisher. 
(i47) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Halcyon the Kingfisher. 
By G. H. LEWIN. 
Halcyon the Kingfisher is sitting on the dead 
branch of an old hawthorn bush which hangs 
over his favourite fishing pool, watching quietly 
and keenly for the passing of a minnow or any 
other small fish in the water beneath. 
The stream which he usually haunts is slow 
and generally clear, meandering here and there 
through green meadows and leafy woodlands. 
Halcyon knows every twist and bend, for he has 
fished the stream and along the main river and 
up almost to its source for full five seasons, with 
ill luck and good, fair weather and foul, coming 
through many dangers, but still alive and free. 
Life seems very good to him, as surely it should, 
for there is no other bird or beast in all his little 
world so brilliantly beautiful as he. The autumn 
sun shines on his new-donned coat of feathers, 
which flash with tints from turquoise blue to 
deepest green as Halcyon moves on his bough; 
his breast feathers, like copper and gold, give 
added lustre to his charms. 
Patience Rewarded. 
There is no wind; the surface of the stream is 
smooth and the water clear as crystal, so Hal¬ 
cyon has not long to wait, for soon some little 
bleak go qp the stream quietly and easily, with 
no thought of danger. Halcyon springs off his 
perch, and, with fluttering wings, hovers for a 
space with tail bent down, beak to breast and 
body like a spring, then like a flash of light he 
turns over and darts downwards into the water 
beneath, coming up as quickly with a silvery 
bleak in his strong bill. Back to his perch he 
flies, shaking the wet from his shining plumes, 
and then, taking the little fish by the head, he 
swallows it whole, and waits as patiently for the 
next victim. 
The Birthplace of Halcyon. 
Halcyon was born in a hole in the marly bank 
of the main river some*two miles away. It had 
belonged to a water-rat once, but the rat had 
left it, and Halcyon’s parents had cleaned it out 
and altered it a little, so that it sloped upwards 
from its entrance, and about four feet in had 
scooped a larger hollow to form a nesting cham¬ 
ber, in which his mother had laid eight beauti¬ 
fully clear and transparent white eggs upon 
some bones from the fish they had caught. She 
sat upon her treasures until the little birds 
cracked the shells and hatched, then both parents 
had a busy time; but it was May, and the days 
were getting longer as the little birds grew 
larger and more voracious, so there was more 
time to hunt for small water insects and to catch 
other small edible creatures for the youngsters; 
but as they grew they began to be able to eat 
small fish. Although at first they were very 
ugly, and got uglier each day until their feathers 
began to appear, before they were a month old 
they looked almost like their parents, and soon 
began to leave their home for the wide world 
beyond. Halcyon was always the ..foremost in 
pushing forward his open mouth for food, and 
now he was the first to peer out over the water 
from the hole in which they lived. It seemed to 
him to be a wonderful place, the water running 
underneath and the green plants growing on 
the banks and trees throwing their shadows here 
and there. He looked and wondered, and could 
not understand it all. 
An Unfortunate Tumble. 
One day he felt his strength was so great that 
when his father came with a fish in his mouth 
Halcyon fluttered out to meet him. It was a 
rash attempt, and nearly ended sadly for poor 
Halcyon, who fell into the stream, flapping his 
wings lustily on the water, calling loudly to his 
parents, who flew anxiously over him. For¬ 
tunately, a few yards brought him to some shal¬ 
lows near the bank, and he scrambled and flut¬ 
tered out,- somewhat frightened, but none the 
worse. In the next few days the whole family 
had come from their nesting-hole, and could fly 
short distances and cross from bank to bank and 
bush to bush. Their parents were anxious for 
them now, and not without cause, for before 
they had all been taught to dive for fish and to 
search for water insects three of them had been 
lost; one was killed by a bloodthirsty stoat as it 
was sitting on >the bank waiting for food, an¬ 
other had been killed by some boys with stones, 
and the third 'went without any trace one misty 
morning. The danger which they were all in 
when the boys chased them with stones was a 
good lesson to those, remaining, and was never 
forgotten, especially by Halcyon, who had felt a 
stone graze his short, strong tail. 
Halcyon Starts Life for Himself. 
When the first autumn came Halcyon found 
himself alone. His parents had left them all, 
and brothers and sisters had drifted apart, each 
fishing and catching for himself alone, and each 
finding favourite stations from which to watch 
for prey. Life had now become a stern reality 
to him, for several times when there had been 
heavy rains the streams were all muddy and 
sometimes overflowing, so there was no fishing 
to be done at all. At these times Halcyon fell 
back upon any insects and worms he could find 
in the small and narrow streams and springs 
which were but little affected by the heavy rains. 
He managed to get through the autumn very 
well, but the winter was early, long, and sharp, 
and poor Halcyon had no experience of deep 
snows and biting frosts. He did not feel the 
