A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Volume 6Wingrave and Collingwood; F., C., and J. Rivington; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; Cadell and Davies; J. Nunn; J. Richardson; ... [and 11 others], 1816 |
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Common terms and phrases
animal animal's ant-hill appear aurelia beautiful becomes bees beetle begins birds body bottom bred burst butterfly called caterpillar cells CHAP colour cone continue coraline covered deposit destroy devour earth earwig eggs eyes feed feelers feet female fish flesh flies flower four furnished gnat grasshopper grow habitation hair hatched head hive hole honey horns inch inhabitants insect kind labour Laplanders larger lay their eggs leaves legs little animal live Locust male manner moth motion mouth native nature nest observed oviparous parent perfect plants polypus prey produced propagation quadrupeds reptile resemble rest retreat round scarcely season seems seen shell side silk silkworm skin sometimes soon South America species spermaceti sting substance summer surface swarm tail tion transparent trees tribe vegetables voracious wasp Water-Scorpion whole winged insect winter worm young zoophytes
Popular passages
Page 228 - In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which entitles any person that kills an Eagle to a hen out of every house in the parish in which the plunderer is killed.
Page 70 - ... a soldier, who was seen through it, appeared like, an army of pigmies: for while it multiplied, it also diminished the object; the arch of a bridge exhibited a spectacle more magnificent than human skill could perform; the flame of a candle seemed a beautiful illumination. It still...
Page 8 - The colour is a dirty grey, speckled with black, and the body is composed of several flat rings, which slip one upon another. It has six feet, four of which are fixed to the breast and two to the neck. The head is small and flat, and...
Page 141 - ... that they cannot migrate, and where they are diligently fed and attended by the labourers, whose bodies are small enough to admit an easy entrance. After impregnation, the abdomen of the female grows to a prodigious bulk, exceeding the rest of her body nearly two thousand times ; it is then vesicular and white, with transverse brown spots, and an undulate or slightly lobed margin. In this state it contains...
Page 93 - The second sort are the drones ; they are of a darker colour, longer, and more thick by one third than the former : they are supposed to be the males ; and there is not above a hundred of them in a hive of seven or eight thousand bees. The third sort is much larger than either of the former, and still fewer in number : some assert, that there is not above one in every swarm ; but this later observers affirm not to be true, there being sometimes five or six in the same hive. These are called queenbees,...
Page 160 - ... floating away, at the mercy of every breeze, from a place the warmth of which is proper for their .production, to any other where the water may be too cold, or the animals their enemies too numerous.
Page 8 - ... every thing that approaches. . To a form so unpromising, and so ill provided for the purposes of rapacity, this animal unites the most ravenous appetites in nature; but to mark its imbecility still stronger, as other animals have wings or feet to enable them to advance towards their prey, the lion-ant is unprovided with such assistance from either. It has legs indeed; but these only enable it to run backward, so that it could as soon die as make the smallest progressive motion. Thus, famished...
Page 68 - The wings of Butterflies, as was observed, fully distinguish them from flies of every other kind. They are four in number;- and though two of them be cut off, the animal can fly with the two others remaining. They are, in their own substance, transparent ; but owe their opacity to the beautiful dust with which they are covered...