THE KINGFISHER. 
275 
same precision as if they had been spoken by some person 
in the next room ; and when the bell rang for mass, the 
same bird called to its mistress, by name, “ Mademoiselle, 
entendez-vous la messe que Ton sonne? Prenez votre 
livre et revenez vite, donner a manger a votre polisson.” 
If this statement can be depended upon, M. Girardin might 
well have been astonished. 
It was formerly believed that during the time the Halcyon 
or Kingfisher was engaged in hatching her eggs, the water, 
in kindness to her, remained so smooth and calm, that the 
mariner might venture on the sea with the happy certainty 
of not being exposed to storms or tempests ; this period 
was therefore called, by Pliny and Aristotle, “ the halcyon 
days.” 
“ Expect Saint Martin’s* summer, halcyon days.” 
Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2. 
It was also supposed that the dead bird, carefully 
balanced and suspended by a single thread, would always 
turn its beak towards that point of the compass from which 
the wind blew. 
Kent, in King Lear (Act II. Sc. 2), speaks of rogues 
who— 
“ Turn their halcyon beaks 
With every gale and vary of their masters.” 
And, after Shakespeare, Marlowe, in his Jew of Malta , 
says,— 
* To this day the bird is still called “ Martin-pecheur ” by the French. 
