The Human Side of BirdsHalcyon House, 1917 - 246 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
actor America animals appear artists aviators bathing beak beauty bird world birds of prey BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO body brown build buzzards caves cliff-dwellers cliffs colour cormorants creatures crows dance dead delight dive divers dodo ducks eagle eggs enemies extinct eyes feathers feed feet female fish fishers flowers forest grass grebe ground grouse habits head heron hoatzin human world humming-bird imitate insects interesting kakapo kingfisher kites known larvæ learned living male marvellous mate mimicry mimics mocking-bird native naturalist nature neck nest night ostrich ous bird perch Perhaps petrels plumage prairie prey ptarmigan rarely road-makers sand sand martins scavengers season secretary-bird seems sings soaring sometimes song sound sparrow species strange stream suddenly swallows tail thrush tiny tion toilette tree turkey ventriloquist voice wild wild turkeys wings wonderful wood wood thrush young
Popular passages
Page 40 - HE clasps the crag with crooked hands ; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls ; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Page 1 - To view the structure of that little work A bird's nest. Mark it well, within, without ; No tool had he that wrought ; no knife to cut ; No nail to fix ; no bodkin to insert ; No glue to join ; his little beak was all ; And yet, how neatly finished ! What nice hand, With every implement and means of art, And twenty years...
Page 215 - And amidst the flashing and feathery foam The Stormy Petrel finds a home, — A home, if such a place may be, For her who lives on the wide, wide sea...
Page 1 - ... Mark it well, within, without. No tool had he that wrought, no knife to cut, No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, No glue to join; his little beak was all. And yet how neatly finish'd ! What nice hand, With ev'ry implement and means of art, And twenty years apprenticeship to boot, Could make me such another?
Page 173 - A CLOUD lay cradled near the setting sun, A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow; Long had I watched the glory moving on O'er the still radiance of the lake below. Tranquil its spirit seemed, and floated slow! Even in its very motion there was rest; While every breath of eve that chanced to blow Wafted the traveller to the beauteous west.
Page 34 - ... the next four eggs in succession are placed in the interstices, but always in the same plane, so that at last there is a circle of eight eggs all standing upright in the sand, with several inches of sand intervening between each. The male bird assists the female in opening and covering up the mound; and, provided the birds are not themselves disturbed, the female continues to lay in the same mound, even after it has been several times robbed. The natives say that the females lay an egg every...
Page xii - If I name every bird I see in my walk, describe its color and ways, etc., give a lot of facts or details about the bird, it is doubtful if my reader is interested. But if I relate the bird in some way to human life, to my own life, — show what it is to me and what it is in the landscape and the season, —then do I give my reader a live bird and not a labeled specimen.
Page 26 - Hillocks broad, bringing them up tapering to the top, where they leave a small hollow pit to lay their Eggs in; and when they either lay their eggs or hatch them, they stand all the while, not on the Hillock, but close by it with their Legs on the ground and in the water, resting themselves against the Hillock, and covering the hollow Nest upon it with their Rumps: For their Legs are very long; and building thus, as they do, upon the ground, they could neither draw their Legs conveniently into their...
Page 194 - On each boat or raft are ten or a dozen birds, which at a signal from the owner plunge into the water ; and it is astonishing to see the enormous size of the fish with which they return grasped within their bills.
Page 153 - Birds, the free tenants of earth, air, and ocean. Their forms all symmetry, their motions grace. In plumage delicate and beautiful, Thick without burthen, close as fish's scales, Or loose as full-glown poppies on the gale; With wings that seem as they'da soul within them, They bear their owners with such sweet enchantment.