HALCYONS
But peacefull was the night
Wherein the Prince of light
His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Winds with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
John Milton, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
It lays its eggs in the sand hard by the sea, and hatches them in winter when the
waves beat hardest against the shore. But the winds all sleep, and the waves are at rest for
seven days, while the haleyon sits upon her eggs. And when the young ones come to need
their food, then the beneficent God allows seven days more for the growth of this minute
creature. And the sailors are aware of this, and call those
brute creatures is ordained by God, that you may be encouraged to ask of God what you
need for your salvation.
e haleyon days. And care for the
St. Basil, Heraemeron
As to "sea-blue birds" &e. defendant states that he was walking one day in March
by a deep-banked brook, and under the leafless bushes he saw the kingfisher flitting or fleet-
ing underneath him, and there came into his head a fragment of an old Greek lyric poet,
"iarbperses dinpos pis," "The sea-purple or sea-shining bird of Spring," spoken of as the
haleyon. Defendant cannot say whether the Greek haleyon be the same as the British king-
fisher, but, as he never saw the kingfisher on this particular brook before March, he concludes
that in that country, at least, they go down to the sea during the hard weather, and come up
again with the Spring, for what says old Belon:
"Le Martinet-pescheur fait sa demeure
En temps d'hiver au bord de l'océan,
Et en esté sur la rivière en estan,
Et de poisson se repaist à toute heure."
You see he puts "esté," which I suppose stands for all the warmer weather.
Alfred Tennyson, Letter to the Duke of Argyll
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