A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory, Volume 2 |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 6 | |
| 9 | |
| 20 | |
| 34 | |
| 35 | |
| 39 | |
| 41 | |
| 45 | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | |
| 61 | |
| 62 | |
| 65 | |
| 66 | |
| 73 | |
| 80 | |
| 81 | |
| 99 | |
| 100 | |
| 105 | |
| 113 | |
| 114 | |
| 194 | |
| 202 | |
| 244 | |
| 261 | |
| 271 | |
| 285 | |
| 298 | |
| 313 | |
| 361 | |
| 382 | |
| 388 | |
| 397 | |
| 405 | |
| 418 | |
| 453 | |
| 463 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acute anteriorly aperture arched band base bill birds Blackbird bone breast broad bronchi brown brownish-black claw Coal Tit cœca colour compressed concave convex coverts d'Orn diameter dorsal outline dusky edge of lower eggs end of tail extent of wings feathers feet female Fieldfare fore-neck Garden Warbler genus glottis grey greyish-brown greyish-white half twelfths head hedge hind toe hyoid bone insects intestine Lark larvæ larynx Length to end light longest lower mandible male margined Meadow Pipit middle moderate length Motacilla muscles narrow nearly neck nest notch oblong oesophagus outer ovate pale papillæ Pipit plumage quills ridge rings rounded roundish scutella secondaries short shorter sides Sky Lark slender slightly Song Thrush species spots stomach straight Sylvia tail-coverts tail-feathers tarsi tarsus third toe throat tinged Titmouse trachea Tree Pipit trees Turdus upper mandible Wagtail Warbler wing from flexure wing-coverts Wood Lark woods yellow young
Popular passages
Page 332 - But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, " Lord, what music hast thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou...
Page 166 - ... fantasia, in the same key and time. If there be any wind, he rises perpendicularly by bounds, and afterwards poises himself with breast opposed to it. If calm, he ascends in spiral circles ; in horizontal circles during the principal part of his song, and zigzagly downwards during the performance of the finale.
Page 97 - I had the gratification of getting close to it, seated on the top bough of an ash-tree, and pursuing with unceasing zeal its unusual note. The resemblance to the crow of the domestic cock is so perfect, that more than one in the distance were answering to it, and the little fellow seemed to take delight in competing with its rivals of the dunghill. It occasionally indulged in its usual song ; but only for a second or two, resuming its more favourite note ; and once or twice it commenced with crowing,...
Page 369 - On the 17th my researches were renewed, and after three hours watching the motions of another pair, I discovered the nest with three young. It was placed amongst the dead branches of the thickest furze, about two feet from the ground, slightly fastened between the main stems, not in a fork. On the same day, a pair were observed to be busied...
Page 36 - How manifold are thy works, O Lord ! In wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy possessions.
Page 53 - When searching for food, it does not proceed to great distances under water ; but, alighting on some spot, sinks, and soon re-appears in the immediate neighbourhood, when it either dives again, or rises on the wing to drop somewhere else on the stream, or settle on a stone.
Page 394 - ... of a minute and a half or two minutes ; or, upon an average, thirty-six times in an hour ; and this continued full sixteen hours in a day, which, if equally divided between the eight young ones, each would receive seventy-two feeds in the day ; the whole amounting to five hundred and seventy-six. From examination of the food...
Page 219 - ... its habitat ; for besides the British Islands, Norway and Sweden are the only parts of Europe whence I have been able to procure examples, identical with our bird, whose place in the temperate portions of Europe is supplied by a nearly allied, but distinct species, the true M. Alba of...
Page 414 - ... probably in the earlier part of the morning more frequently ; but if we allow that they brought food to the hole every minute for fourteen hours, and provided for their own wants also, it will admit of perhaps a thousand grubs a day for the requirements of one, and that a diminished brood > and give us some comprehension of...
Page 128 - Feast on the banded snail Worm and gilded fly : Drink of the crystal rill Winding adown the hill, Never to dry. With glee, with glee, with glee, Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up, here. , Nothing to harm us, then sing merrily, Sing to. the loved ones whose nest is near.