The Bird BookHeath, 1901 - 281 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
ANCIENT MURRELET barn beneath bill bird's blackbird body Bonaparte's gull bones breast brown build called claws coast color cormorants cow-bird cuckoo dark diving ducks eaves eaves-swallow eggs eyes feathers feeding feet fish flock flycatchers foot fulmars gannet grass grebe green grosbeak ground gulls habits hawk head Heart of Oak heron insects kind Latin name legs light live look loon male martin migrate mountain nearly neck nest never night North northern notice observe pelican perhaps petrels pine grosbeak purple martin robin ruffed grouse S. S. McClure sandpipers seems seen shape sharp-shinned hawk shrike side snow sometimes sooty grouse species SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER spring stroke strong summer surface swallows swim tail tell terns toes tree usually vireo webbed Western gull white pelican wind wings winter woodpecker worm yellow young
Popular passages
Page 13 - And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere: "Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems Should blind my purpose, for I never saw, Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die, Not tho' I live three lives of mortal men, So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
Page 47 - Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters, Which, like a network of steel, extended in every direction. Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of the cypress Met in a dusky arch, and trailing mosses in midair Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient cathedrals.
Page 215 - This guest of summer, The temple-haunting. martlet, does approve, By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle : Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd, The air is delicate.
Page 38 - Then stooped the Lord, and He called the good sea up to Him, And 'stablished his borders unto all eternity, That such as have no pleasure For to praise the Lord by measure, They may enter into galleons and serve Him on the sea. Sun, wind, and cloud shall fail not from the face of it, Stinging, ringing spindrift, nor the fulmar flying free; And the ships shall go abroad To the Glory of the Lord Who heard the silly sailor-folk and gave them back their sea...
Page xiv - His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep in his mind, was connected with Nature, — and the meaning of Nature was never attempted to be defined by him. He would not offer a memoir of his observations to the Natural History Society. " Why should I ? To detach the description from its connections in my mind would make it no longer true or valuable to me : and they do not wish what belongs to it.
Page 276 - Birds about us. Travels in a Tree-top ; and other volumes. Birds and Poets. Locusts and Wild Honey. Wake-robin ; and his other nature books. Walden. The Maine Woods. Early Spring in Massachusetts. Summer. Autumn. Winter. The Bird's Kalendar. Song Birds and Water Fowl. Byways and Bird Notes ; and other books. Birds in the Bush.
Page 9 - I walked one night in mystery of dream; A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair, To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air. Pale fireflies pulsed within the meadow-mist...
Page 104 - ... opposition. To prevent inconvenience from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to the mere opening of the gullet, which, indeed, prevents mastication taking place there ; but the stomach, or gizzard, to which this business is solely allotted, is of uncommon hardness, strength, and muscularity, far surpassing, in these respects, any other water bird with which I am acquainted.
Page 265 - Species which migrate exclusively by night habitually feed in or near the shelter of trees, bushes, rank herbage or grass, and when not migrating are birds of limited powers of flight and sedentary habits, restricting their daily excursions to the immediate vicinity of their chosen haunts. As a rule they are of timid, or at least retiring disposition, and when alarmed or pursued seek safety in concealment rather than by extended flights.