American Ornithology, Or The Natural History of the Birds of the United States: Illustrated with Plates, Engraved and Coloured from Original Drawings Taken from Nature, Volume 1Collins, 1828 - Birds "The second full edition of Wilson's work, with plates in their most desirable form. This is the most important work on American ornithology before Audubon."--William Reece Company. |
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Page v
... figure and describe his birds , nearly in the order in which he obtained them ; and was , therefore , often compelled to place together those of the most dissimilar habits and characters , and to separate the male and female of the same ...
... figure and describe his birds , nearly in the order in which he obtained them ; and was , therefore , often compelled to place together those of the most dissimilar habits and characters , and to separate the male and female of the same ...
Page xxxi
... figure , and landscapes , were provided for him ; but his attempts were so unpromising that he threw them aside with disgust ; and concluded that one at his period of life could never succeed in The following incident was communicated ...
... figure , and landscapes , were provided for him ; but his attempts were so unpromising that he threw them aside with disgust ; and concluded that one at his period of life could never succeed in The following incident was communicated ...
Page xxxii
... figures , fanciful theories , fables and misrepresentations , that on turning , as he himself observes , from these barren and musty records to the magnificent repo- * Mr. Bartram's niece , now the consort of Col. Carr . sitory of the ...
... figures , fanciful theories , fables and misrepresentations , that on turning , as he himself observes , from these barren and musty records to the magnificent repo- * Mr. Bartram's niece , now the consort of Col. Carr . sitory of the ...
Page lii
... figure , compared with the white bellied Gobe - mouche , 8 Buff . 342. Pl . enlum . 566 , shows a near relation . Buffon's is dark on the back . " As you are curious in birds , there is one well worthy your attention , to be found , or ...
... figure , compared with the white bellied Gobe - mouche , 8 Buff . 342. Pl . enlum . 566 , shows a near relation . Buffon's is dark on the back . " As you are curious in birds , there is one well worthy your attention , to be found , or ...
Page lviii
... instruction in the art of etching , he could produce more accurate delineations ; and would be enabled , by his superior knowledge of colouring , to finish the figures for his contemplated work , in a lviii LIFE OF WILSON .
... instruction in the art of etching , he could produce more accurate delineations ; and would be enabled , by his superior knowledge of colouring , to finish the figures for his contemplated work , in a lviii LIFE OF WILSON .
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Common terms and phrases
Alexander Wilson amusement animals appearance Arct Bald Eagle Baltimore Baltimore Oriole Barn Owl barred Bartram bill Black Vulture Blue Jay breast brownish cere claws colour Crow dark brown deep ducks dusky Eagle East Florida eggs FALCO feathers feet female fish Fish-Hawk frequently genus Grakle habits half Hawk head honour horse hundred inches long Indian inhabitants journey kind latter legs length light LINN male manner miles naturalists nature nearly neck nest never observed Orchard Oriole Ornithology pale brown particular passed PEALE'S Museum Philadelphia Plate plumage present prey procured river round scapulars season seen Sharp-shinned Hawk shore shot side Slate-coloured Hawk small birds sometimes species specimens spot streaked swallows swamps Syst tail tion tipt torpidity town tree tribe Turkey-buzzard upper Vulture whole William Bartram Wilson wings winter woods yellow young Zool
Popular passages
Page 155 - My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, His locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, Washed with milk, and fitly set.
Page cxci - 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 booty silently away to the woods.
Page lxxxi - Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow • warmer among...
Page clxxxix - 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 calls of their mates ; or dive, with precipitation, into the depths of thickets, at the scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk.
Page clxxvi - There is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage, which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction.
Page 126 - O ! sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos, no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles the halfsuppressed screams of a person suffocating, or throttled, and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely benighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness...
Page clxxxviii - Mr Bartram has beautifully expressed it, " He bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his very soul, expired in the last elevated strain...
Page 38 - This distinguished bird, as he is the most beautiful of his tribe in this part of the world, and the adopted emblem of our country, is entitled to particular notice. He has been long known to naturalists, being common to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high northern latitude to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers.
Page 157 - Thus, like the sad presaging raven, that tolls The sick man's passport in her hollow beak, And in the shadow of the silent night Doth shake contagion from her sable wings, Vex'd and tormented runs poor Barabas With fatal curses towards these Christians.