The Birds of New England and Adjacent States: Containing Descriptions of the Birds of New England and Adjoining States and Provinces ... |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant anteriorly Audubon bands base beneath bill bill black Biog bird Black-billed Cuckoo blotches Bonaparte breast breeds brood brown brownish-black Cabanis claws color commissure common culmen curved dark-brown DESCRIPTION dimensions dusky edged eggs England feet female fifty one-hundredths inches flocks four in number Fringilla Gmelin grass habits half head hind toe inner insects larvæ lateral toes legs Length lined Linnæus longer lower male mandible Massachusetts middle toe moss nearly neck nest northern nostrils Nutt Nuttall outer patch plumage primaries pure-white quill longest reddish-brown rounded rump scapulars season short shorter sides slender sometimes song South species specimens spots streaked stripe Sub-Family summer Swainson Syst tail coverts tail feathers tarsi tarsus tertials throat tibia tibiæ tinged Titmouse transverse tree twenty-five one-hundredths twigs Umbagog Lakes upper mandible uttered Vieillot Warbler whitish Wilson wing coverts wings long winter Woodpecker woods yellow young
Popular passages
Page 166 - In his native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush or half-grown tree, in the dawn of 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 51 - ... 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.
Page 54 - Soon as the sun, great ruler of the year, Bends to our northern climes his bright career, And from the caves of ocean calls from sleep » The finny shoals and myriads of the deep ; When freezing tempests back to Greenland ride, And day and night the equal hours divide, — True to the season, o'er our sea-beat shore The sailing osprey high is seen to soar...
Page 51 - ... change of seasons ; as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold, and from thence descend, at will, to the torrid, or the arctic regions of the earth.
Page 168 - ... baltimore, and twenty others, succeed with such imposing reality, that we look round for the originals, and discover with astonishment that the sole performer in this singular concert is the admirable bird now before us.
Page 167 - While thus exerting himself, a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled together, on a trial of skill, each striving to produce his utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations.
Page 481 - is generally returned by some of the party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception of the undulations of their flight.
Page 391 - ... the ground, usually at the bottom of a thick tuft of grass, that shelters and conceals it. The materials are leaves and fine dry grass in considerable quantity. It is well covered above, and an opening left on one side for entrance. The female lays from fifteen to twenty-four eggs, of a pure-white, without any spots.
Page 102 - We are told, in the benevolent language of the scriptures, not to muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn...
Page 51 - ... but man ; and from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him, he appears indifferent to the little...