CHAPTER V. KINGFISHERS. Halcyon of the ancients; what?-Aldrovandi's figures and descriptions.-Nest of Halcyon.-Haunts and habits of the Kingfisher.-Anecdote.-How far destructive to fish. To procure young birds.-To rear and feed them.-Captive Kingfishers.-Mr. Rayner's aviary.-Diet and habits of Kingfishers there.— Mode of eating. Their pugnacity.-Destructiveness of a Heron.-Unsociability of Kingfishers.-Management in a captive state.-African Kinghunters.Australian Kingfishers.-The Laughing Jackasses. "HALCYON is rendered a Kingfisher, a bird commonly known among us, and by Zoographers and Naturals the same is named Ispida, a well-coloured bird, frequenting streams and rivers, building in holes of pits, like some Martins, about the end of the Spring; in whose nests we have found little else than innumerable small fish-bones, and white round eggs of a smooth and polished surface, whereas the true Alcyon is a Sea-Bird, makes a handsome nest floating upon the water, and breedeth in the Winter."* Some learning has been bestowed to ascertain whether Halcyon should be spelt with or without the H; leaving the matter much where it was. Sir Thomas Brown, in the above quotation, uses it both ways, and so makes sure in being right in one place, and of obliging equally those country-folks who can, and those Cockneys who cannot, pronounce the aspirate. Aldrovandi thought that it was a song bird, and hoped it would not complain * Sir Thomas Brown, Tracts, IV. in its mournful and very sweet song (" lamentabile et suavissimo suo cantu") of the affront he had put upon it, by giving the precedence, in his Ornithologia, to other less celebrated birds. According to him, the Halcyon of the ancients no longer exists; in which opinion we may believe him to be correct, if the observations of the old Poets and Philosophers are required to be verified—if we are to find a bird which "at the time of its nidulation, which happeneth about the brumal solstice, maketh a nest which floateth upon the sea," and which, after death, if suspended in a room, veers to the quarter whence the wind happens to blow, as unerringly and surely as the magnetic needle continually points to the pole. It was another vulgar belief, that if their intestines only were extracted, and their bodies hung up to dry, they would moult every year exactly as if they were alive; but Aldrovandi assures us that he had one suspended in his museum for several years, and yet was never able to perceive the renewal of the feathers. "Most moderns," he adds, "believe the Ispida to be the Halcyon of the ancients: although we disapprove of the opinion, yet we grant them to be nearly allied to it; and the ancients have recorded many things of the Alcyon which are also observed in the Ispida." Pliny's description is not so very wide of the mark: “Ipsa avis paulò amplior passere, colore cyaneo ex parte majore, tantum purpureis, et candidis admixtis pennis."* The bird itself is a little larger than a Sparrow, of an azure colour for the greater part, only with a mixture of purple and white feathers. Aldrovandi's figure of the Ispida is an excellent like * Lib. 10, c. 31. CHAP. V.] 66 6 HALCYON'S NEST. 299 ness of our Kingfisher, accompanied by a reduced representation of some water-weed, which, contrary to his usual custom, he has omitted to specify by name, though in other places he makes up for the omission by adding an insect or a fish, as well as a botanical fragment. As Claude Lorraine used to sell his landscapes, and give the figures into the bargain, so Aldrovandi appends to his birds a little bit of plant by way of make weight. Thus we have Grus cum Geranio Cretico.'-The Crane, with the Cretan Geranium. 'Anser quadrupes alius cum althæâ palustri.'-Another four-footed (monstrous) Goose, with the Marsh-mallow. Anser ferus Ferrariâ missus cum nymphæâ luteâ majori.'-A wild Goose sent from Ferrara, with the greater yellow water-lily." Sometimes he is extra liberal, as when he gives "Ardea cinereæ tertium genus cum persicariâ, et cochleâ.'-A third sort of Ashy Heron, with the Persicaria and the Cockle." Other writers tell us that the nest of the Halcyon, namely, the one which floats on the surface of the sea during its prescribed period of calmness, is "very like a sponge." Aldrovandi gives a large figure from which it is clear that it must have been a sponge. Ancient authors are profuse in their admiration of the skill which the bird exerts in manufacturing this spongy ark, and are in some confusion about the fish-bones, which they suppose to be used as needles on the occasion. The musical talent of the Nightingale, the conjugal affection of the Dove, do not, in their way, surpass the industry of the Kingfisher. That such a bird should disgrace it. self by yielding to the weakness of dying of love! But without reference to these marvels, the Kingfisher is really an interesting bird, from its habits and its beauty, both of which are sure to attract attention. The holiday stroller from the confinement of a large town, as he tracks the retired footpath that skirts the margin of some small brook overhung with alders and willows, is startled by a shrill, sharp cry, and sees glancing past him one or two winged emeralds in a moment they are gone, and he walks on thinking of the brilliant creatures that have just vanished from his gaze. Soon he advances to a spot where the streamlet spreads into an open pool: he sits down to rest, wondering at the beauty of the dragon-flies, longing to reach the floating water-lilies, and enjoying the perfume of the mint he has trodden underfoot. He hears a short splash, he turns, and sees the spreading circles on the water; he looks up, and behold, on an outstretching branch, a bird whose ruddy bosom alone meets his view. He remains motionless, watching his newly-discovered neighbour. Soon the bird dashes into the water, and returns immediately to its seat on the branch: in flight, it seems all blue ; in repose, all ruddy-brown! It is the same bird which he saw before, but has two completely different aspects-like those double-masquerade costumes, wherein the front assumes one character, and the back another. Again a plunge is made into the stream, and the bird uprises, bearing a little fish in his beak; this time he returns not to his branch, but departs straight away like a levelled rocket: perhaps the nest is near at hand. The arrival of the Kingfisher at his fishing station, is as abrupt as his departure thence. The very first convenient perching-place that offers in his course, invites him to alight, if water is hard by. An unexpected example of this habit occurred to a gentleman on whose veracity I can depend. He was angling near Norwich, close by a bridge that crossed a small stream, whose CHAP. V.J HOW FAR DESTRUCTIVE. 301 banks, at that point, were naked of trees or shrubs. As he stood quietly watching his float in the water, a Kingfisher darted through the arch of the bridge, and alighted on his rod, as being the readiest perch. It soon saw by what sort of trunk this taper twig was supported; but the time of its continuance thereon, though only a moment, was long enough to permit a steady view of the gaudy visitor. One might angle for many years without meeting with a similar accident. An iron railing a few yards from our own windows is occasionally thus occupied; and some spruce firs opposite, whose branches droop over the water, often, when lighted up by the afternoon sunshine, serve as resting-places to the Kingfisher. But its haunts seem to be perpetually changing: some weeks not one is to be seen; during other short periods they flash every day upon our sight. Do Kingfishers make such havoc in our fish-ponds, that they need be persecuted here, as the Water Ouzel is in Scotland? Some few fry they must of course consume; but while we permit the ravages of Eels, Pike, Herons, Otters, and Seals, it seems an overgrudging severity to punish the depredations of the Kingfisher, unless indeed his feathery spoils are wanted to set off, by contrast, a case of dull-plumaged stuffed birds, or to prove even more destructive to the finny tribe than before, in the shape of artificial flies. We rather like to see them dipping into our waters, as a proof of the abundance of fry of the current season, and cannot bring our hearts to grudge them their moderate enjoyment of an occasional white-bait dinner. But not all admirers of the dazzling tints of the Kingfisher have been content with a casual glance, as the bird flits by at perfect liberty: attempts have been made, |