The Kingfisher. 217 
THE KINGFISHER, (Alcedo ispida,) 
Is the Halcyon of the ancients, and his name recalls to 
our mind the most lively ideas. It was believed, that, 
as long as the female sat upon her eggs, the god of 
storms and tempests refrained from disturbing the calm- 
ness of the waves, and Halcyon days were, for navigators 
of old, the most secure times to perform their voyages : 
"As firm as the rock, and as calm as the flood, 
Where the peace-loving Halcyon deposits her brood." 
But although this bears analogy to a natural coinci- 
dence between the time of breeding assigned to the 
Kingfishers and a part of the year when the ocean is 
less tempestuous, yet Mythology would exercise her 
fancy, and turn into wonders that which was nothing 
else than the common course of nature. 
This bird is nearly as small as a common sparrow, 
but the head and beak appear proportionally too big 
for the body. The bright blue of the back and wings 
claims our admiration, as it changes into deep purple 
or lively green, according to the angles of light under 
which the bird presents itself to the eye. It generally 
haunts the banks of rivers, for the purpose of seizing 
small fish, on which it subsists, and which it takes in 
amazing quantities, by balancing itself at a distance 
above the water for a certain time, and then darting on 
the fish with -unerring aim. It dives perpendicularly 
into the water, where it continues several seconds, and 
then brings up the fish, which it carries to land, beats 
