The Magazine of Natural History, Volume 1

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Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829 - Natural history

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Page 95 - Fish-hawk : each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, displaying in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unencumbered Eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish : the Eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten...
Page 405 - The sum is this. If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. Else they are all...
Page 342 - Full fain it would delay me! My dear babe, Who, capable of no articulate sound, Mars all things with his imitative lisp, How he would place his hand beside his ear, His little hand, the small forefinger up, And bid us listen!
Page 417 - 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. He many times deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps are not within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates. Even birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied...
Page 342 - And I deem it wise To make him Nature's playmate. He knows well The evening star ! and once, when he awoke In most distressful mood (some inward pain Had made up that strange thing, an infant's dream...
Page 417 - In his domesticated state, when he commences his career of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog ; Caesar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken ; and the hen hurries about, with hanging wings and bristled feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and rapidity.
Page 39 - Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, And bush with frizzled hair implicit : last Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd Their blossoms: with high woods the' hills were crown'd With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side; With borders long the rivers: that Earth now Seem'd like to Heaven a seat where gods might dwell Or wander with delight, and love to haunt Her sacred shades...
Page 405 - I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
Page 95 - 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 eager looks of the eagle are all...
Page 95 - By his wide curvature of wing and sudden suspension in the air he knows him to be the fish-hawk, 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...

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