The Curious Book of Birds | Page 9

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see the storm and the shipwreck, and the form of Ceyx appeared, saying a sad farewell to
her. As soon as it was light she rose and hastened to the seashore, trembling with a
horrible dread. Standing on the very spot whence she had last seen the fated ship, she
looked wistfully over the waste of stormy waters. At last she spied a dark something
tossing on the waves. The object floated nearer and nearer, until a huge breaker cast
before her on the sand the body of her drowned husband.
"O dearest Ceyx!" she cried. "Is it thus that you return to me?" Stretching out her arms
toward him, she leaped upon the sea wall as if she would throw herself into the ocean,
which advanced and retreated, seething around his body. But a different fate was to be
hers. As she leaped forward two strong wings sprouted from her shoulders, and before
she knew it she found herself skimming lightly as a bird over the water. From her throat
came sounds of sobbing, which changed as she flew into the shrill piping of a bird. Soft
feathers now covered her body, and a crest rose above the forehead which had once been
so fair. Halcyone was become a Kingfisher, the first Kingfisher who ever flew lamenting
above the waters of the world.
The sad bird fluttered through the spray straight to the body that was tossed upon the surf.
As her wings touched the wet shoulders, and as her horny beak sought the dumb lips in
an attempt to kiss what was once so dear, the body of Ceyx began to receive new life.
The limbs stirred, a faint color returned to the cheeks. At the same moment a change like
that which had transformed Halcyone began to pass over her husband. He too was
becoming a Kingfisher. He too felt the thrill of wings upon his shoulders, wings which
were to bear him up and away out of the sea which had been his death. He too was clad in
soft plumage with a kingly crest upon his kingly head. With a faint cry, half of sorrow for
what had happened, half of joy for the future in which these two loving ones were at least
to be together, Ceyx rose from the surf-swept sand where his lifeless limbs had lain and
went skimming over the waves beside Halcyone his wife.
So those unhappy mortals became the first kingfishers, happy at last in being reunited. So
we see them still, flying up and down over the waters of the world, royal forms with royal
crests upon their heads.
They built their nest of the bones of fish, a stout and well-joined basket which floated on
the waves as safely as any little boat. And while their children, the baby Halcyons, lay in
this rocking cradle, for seven days in the heart of winter, no storms ever troubled the
ocean and mariners could set out upon their voyages without fear.

For while his little grandchildren rocked in their basket, the good King Æolus, pitying the
sorrows of his daughter Halcyone, was always especially careful to chain up in prison
those wicked brothers the Winds, so that they could do no mischief of any kind.
And that is why a halcyon time has come to mean a season of peace and safety.

THE FORGETFUL KINGFISHER
In these days the Kingfisher is a sad and solitary bird, caring not to venture far from the
water where she finds her food. Up and down the river banks she goes, uttering a peculiar
plaintive cry. What is she saying, and why is she so restless? The American Kingfisher is
gray, but her cousin of Europe is a bird of brilliant azure with a breast of rusty red.
Therefore it must have been the foreign Kingfisher who was forgetful, as you shall hear.
Long, long after the sorrows of Halcyone, the first Kingfisher, were ended, came the
great storm which lasted forty days and forty nights, causing the worst flood which the
world has ever known. That was a terrible time. When Father Noah hastened to build his
ark, inviting the animals and birds to take refuge with him, the Kingfisher herself was
glad to go aboard. For even she, protected by Æolus from the fury of winds and waters,
was not safe while there was no place in all the world for her to rest foot and weary wing.
So the Kingfisher fluttered in with the other birds and animals, a strange company! And
there they lived all together, Noah and his arkful of pets, for many weary days, while the
waters raged and the winds howled outside, and all the earth was covered fathoms deep
out of sight below the