The Illustrated Natural History: BirdsContenido> v 1, Mamiferos. v 2, Pajaros. v 3, Reptiles, peces y moluscos. |
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abdomen adult America Australia base beak beautiful Bee-eater bill blue body branches breast breeding British birds cage central feathers cere chin claws colour common covered creature crest Crow curious curved dark brown deep Eagle edges eggs England extremely Falcon feeding feet female flight flocks fourth quills longest Genus grass green grey greyish ground Habitat habits hawk hind toe Hoopoe Humming-birds inches inhabitant insects Jabiru Kingfisher known larvæ legs little bird male bird mandible mate mottled native nearly nest Nightjar nostrils Outer toe Parrot peculiar perch Peregrine Falcon Pheasant placed plumage plumes prey pure white quill-feathers quills longest remarkable resemblance season seen seldom short sides slender snowy white sometimes Sparrow species spot streak Sub-family SUN-BIRD swallow Tail long tail-feathers Tarsi throat Thrush tint Titmouse total length tree upper surface upper tail-coverts uttering Vulture wing-coverts yellow young birds
Popular passages
Page 109 - Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him; All mock him outright by day; But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away!
Page 324 - ... dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises preeminent over every competitor. The ear can listen to his music alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere accompaniment.
Page 580 - ... off in a direction quite different from that in which they had arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all that were able to fly had disappeared. The...
Page 578 - Pigeons, every morning, a little before sunri.se, set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten o'clock, and the great body generally appeared, on their return, a little after noon.
Page 19 - A horse had dropped down in the street in convulsions, and dying, it was dragged out to Hampstead and skinned. The ground for a hundred yards around it was black with carrion crows ; many sat on the tops of sheds, fences, and houses within sight ; sixty or eighty on the opposite side of a small run.
Page 366 - His note is loud and clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard at the distance of three miles. In the midst of these extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an aged mora, almost out of gun reach, you will see the campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly pronounced ' Whip-poor- Will ' from the goatsucker, causes such astonishment as the toll of the campanero.
Page 15 - The force to keep up the momentum of a body moving in a horizontal plane in the air (in which there is so little friction) cannot be great, and this force is all that is wanted. The movement of the neck and body of the condor, we must suppose, is sufficient for this. However this may be, it is truly wonderful and beautiful to see so great a bird, hour after hour, without any apparent exertion, wheeling and gliding] over mountain and river.
Page 367 - Will," from the goatsucker, cause such astonishment as the toll of the campanero. ' With many of the feathered race he pays the common tribute of a morning and an evening song ; and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature, the campanero still cheers the forest. You hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute, then another toll, and then a pause again, and then a toll, and again a pause.
Page 578 - They were flying with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond gunshot, in several strata deep, and so close together, that could shot have reached them, one discharge could not have failed of bringing down several individuals.
Page 561 - He is of a gay and frolicsome disposition, and half a dozen of the fraternity are frequently seen diving and vociferating around the high dead limbs of some large tree, pursuing and playing with each other, and amusing the passenger with their gambols. "Their note or cry is shrill and lively, and so much resembles that of a species of treefrog which inhabits the same tree that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the one from the other.