Our Own Birds: A Familiar Natural History of the Birds of the United StatesJ.B. Lippincott, 1878 - 265 pages |
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abundant Acrogenous American appearance Audubon bark Barn Swallow beautiful beneath bill bloom blossoms branches bright called Canada Goose close color diameter distance Duck Eagle eggs Eider Duck familiar favorite feathers feed feet in circumference female flocks flowers Fly-catcher foliage forest frequently graceful grass ground grows habits Hawk head height Heron hole House Wren Humming Bird inches inhabitants insects INSESSORES interesting larvæ leaves light Lily little bird male motions neck nest night observed Palm peculiar Pine plants plumage possessed prey resemblance river roots season seed seen seldom shade shores singular Snow Bunting Snowy Owl soft sometimes song soon South species spot spring stamens stem summer surface Swallows sweet tail tall tion Titmouse tree trunk varieties Victoria Regia Warbler Whip-poor-will White Ibis wild wings winter wood Wood Thrush Wood Warblers Woodpecker Wren yellow young
Popular passages
Page 11 - And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good.
Page 33 - Sweet bird ! thy bower is ever green, Thy sky is ever clear ; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year...
Page 195 - Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of "Here they come!" The noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon knocked down by the pole-men.
Page 50 - ... Observe the various vegetable race : They neither toil, nor spin, but careless grow ; Yet see how warm they blush ! how bright they glow .' What regal vestments can with them compare ! What king so shining! or what queen so fair!
Page 34 - ... indulged. I have shown him only as I saw him at first, in what I may call the poetical part of his career, when he in a manner devoted himself to elegant pursuits and enjoyments, and was a bird of music, and song, and taste, and sensibility, and refinement. While this lasted he was sacred from injury ; the very schoolboy would not fling a stone at him, and the merest rustic would pause to listen to his strain. But mark the difference. As the year advances, as the...
Page 32 - Nature is in all her freshness and fragrance: "the rains are over and gone, the flowers appear upon the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.
Page 32 - He comes amidst the pomp and fragrance of the season ; his life seems all sensibility and enjoyment, all song and sunshine. He is to be found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and sweetest meadows, and is most in song when the clover is in blossom.
Page 49 - Not worlds on worlds, in phalanx deep, Need we to prove a God is here ; The daisy, fresh from Nature's sleep, Tells of his hand in lines as clear.
Page 73 - Springing in valleys green and low, And on the mountains high, And in the silent wilderness Where no man passes by ? Our outward life requires them not ; Then wherefore had they birth ? — To minister delight to man, To beautify the earth. To comfort man, — to whisper hope Whene'er his faith is dim ; For who so careth for the flowers Will much more care for him ! THE WOODLAND SANCTUARY.
Page 176 - ... coursing along the sands ; trains of ducks streaming over the surface; silent and watchful cranes, intent and wading; clamorous crows and all the winged multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of Nature. High over all these hovers one whose action instantly arrests all his attention.