"The _Robin_ and the _Wren_
Are God Almighty's cock and hen,"
says the old distich, and whilst it is reckoned wicked to kill either of
these (not but that there is an ancient custom of "hunting the wren" still
kept up, we believe, in some parts of this country,) it is considered
unlucky to kill a _Swallow_, or _House-Martin_. The _King-fisher_ is the
Halcyon of the ancients, who imagined that during the process of
incubation by the female the sea remained unvexed by storms; hence
"halcyon days." The feathers of this bird are employed by the Tartars for
many superstitious purposes; they consider them amulets of priceless value,
enabling them to inspire women with love. In more civilized countries it
was once believed, that if the body of a kingfisher were suspended by a
thread, some magnetic influence would turn its breast to the north: others
thought it a preserver of woollen cloths from moths. The _Albatross_ (by
some considered the kingfisher or halcyon,) is fabled to sleep in the air,
never to touch the earth; and to kill one is reckoned supremely unlucky.
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