Kĭng'fish-er, n.

n. (Ornith.) A bird of the genus Alcedo, the common European species being A. ispida, and the common American A. alcyon. It has a gay plumage, inhabits the borders of streams, and lives on fish, which it takes by darting down on its prey in the water.

☞ Under the name of halcyon, it was fabled by the ancients to build its nest on the surface of the sea, and to have the power of calming the troubled waves during its period of incubation; hence the phrase “halcyon days.” Baird.