66 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
vintage and good wine. The Kingfisher was associated with
the elements in a strange manner. Pliny relates that the
Halcyon, as the Kingfisher was called, made a nest of bones of
fish, which floated on the water, and that so long as the female
remained on her eggs no storm ruffled the ocean. The period
of incubation started seven days before the winter
solstice and continued for seven days after, these being the
"halcyon days" of Shakespeare. Sir Thomas Browne passes
on an even more absurd idea. A Kingfisher hanged by the bill
showed in what quarter the wind was by an occult and secret
propriety, turning the breast towards the part of the horizon
from which the wind blew. Sir Thomas commented that this
conceit of introducing natural weathercocks and extending
magnetical positions as far as animal natures, although supported
by the practice of the times, was not supported by practice and
reason. Some Sussex people draw their weather inspiration
from nocturnal birds with the saying, "When owls whoop
much at night, expect a fair morrow." Herons flying up and
down in the evening, as though uncertain of a roost, presaged
in earlier days "evill approaching weather." In Hampshire
there is a belief that Swans are hatched in thunderstorms, but
no explanations are forthcoming as to the associations of the
idea. The actions of the Storm-Petrel were of significance to
the mariner, and if these birds kept close inshore or followed a
vessel a storm was imminent. The belief existed on St. Kilda
that if the Fulmar-Petrel sought land the west wind was far off.
In Shetland the Red-throated Diver is called the Rain-Goose
because its call is supposed to indicate the approach of wet.
The Norwegians consider it impious to destroy the Black-throated
Diver, as it makes a great noise against rain ; and they know when
stormy weather is approaching by the call of the Immer, their
name for the Great Northern Diver. The shepherds of Garrow
(Scotland) say that the drumming of the Snipe indicates dry
weather and frost at night. The Welsh describe the Black
Guillemot as the "sailors' hatred" from an idea that its appear-
ance foretells a storm and we conclude this series of examples
with one from Greenland, where the Little Auk is known as the
Ice Bird, being considered the harbinger of ice.
Augury, our second aspect, is so closely associated with the