Forms: α. 5 kyngys fischare, 6 kinges fisher, 6–8 king’s fisher. β. 7– kingfisher.
1. A small European bird (Alcedo ispida) with a long cleft beak and brilliant plumage, feeding on fish and aquatic animals which it captures by diving. Hence, extended to other birds of the family Alcedinidæ or Halcyonidæ, esp. the Belted Kingfisher of N. America (Ceryle alcyon), and the Laughing Jackass of Australia (Dacelo gigas).
Various superstitions have been associated with the Common Kingfisher, some of which it shares with the HALCYON (which has been generally identified with it), esp. the belief that a dried specimen hung up indicated by its position the direction in which the wind was blowing.
α. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 275/2. Kyngys fyschare, lytylle byrde, isida.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 108 b. Beare a naturall grudge the one to the other: as doth the Eagle and the Kings Fisher.
1622. May, Virg. Georg., III. (1628), 89. When … dew refreshing on the Pasture fields The Moone bestowes, Kings-fishers play on shore.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., b ij. That a Kings fisher hanged by the bill sheweth where the winde is.
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 989. The Fishing Hauk is an absolute Species of a Kings-fisher.
1797. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 326. This sanguine little king’s-fisher (not prescient of the storm, as by his instinct he ought to be).
β. 1658. Phillips, Halcyon, a bird called a King-fisher.
a. 1667. Cowley, On Poverty. Here sad King-fishers tell their Tales.
1789. G. White, Selborne, II. xlii. (1853), 271. The kingfisher darts along like an arrow.
a. 1821. Keats, Imit. Spenser, ii. There the Kingfisher saw his plumage bright Vieing with fish of brilliant dye below.
a. 1889. G. M. Hopkins, Poems (1918), 54. As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme.
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, 483. In habits Kingfishers display considerable diversity.
2. The name of an artificial salmon-fly. ? Obs.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 109. Two salmon flies, which are the principal ones, called the Dragon and Kings-fisher … of the most gaudy feathers there are, especially the peacock’s.
