A System of Natural History: Containing Scientific and Popular Descriptions of Various Animals

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Peck & Wood, 1834 - Birds - 684 pages

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Page 410 - Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
Page 448 - ... settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and balancing himself with half-opened wings on the branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear, as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around ! At this moment the...
Page 111 - She went off a second time as before ; and having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible fondness went round one, and round the other, pawing them and moaning.
Page 448 - Elevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a wide view of the neighbouring shore and ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes that pursue their busy avocations below, — the snow-white Gulls slowly winnowing the air; the busy...
Page 656 - The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is about four feet in length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and nearly six feet across the wings.
Page 498 - This excessive fondness for variety, however, in the opinion of some, injures his song. His elevated imitations of the brown thrush are frequently interrupted by the crowing of cocks : and the warblings of the...
Page 514 - The length of the peacock, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail', is about three feet eight inches.
Page 448 - Tringae 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 his whole attention.
Page 190 - ... once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no — the fowling-piece, (loaded with ball, of course,) and the two hogspears, were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without them, as the event will show. I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows...
Page 561 - The feathers on its wings and tail are black ; but those on its body, and under its wings, are of a greenish brown, with a fine red cast or gloss, which no silk or velvet can imitate. It has a small crest on its head, green at the bottom, and as it were gilded at the top ; and which sparkles in the sun like a little star in the middle of its forehead. The bill is black, straight, slender, and of the length of a small pin.

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