A Year with the BirdsEducational Publishing Company, 1890 - 317 pages |
From inside the book
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Page 19
... watch for the first gleam of dawn , which he always faith- fully announces before any other bird is awake . Two or three strains from his octave pipe are the signal for a gen- eral awakening of the birds , and one by one they join the ...
... watch for the first gleam of dawn , which he always faith- fully announces before any other bird is awake . Two or three strains from his octave pipe are the signal for a gen- eral awakening of the birds , and one by one they join the ...
Page 24
... watch one on a tree while singing , he may be observed suddenly to take flight , and while pois- ing himself in the air , though still advancing , to pour out a continued strain of melody with all the rapture of a Skylark . The male ...
... watch one on a tree while singing , he may be observed suddenly to take flight , and while pois- ing himself in the air , though still advancing , to pour out a continued strain of melody with all the rapture of a Skylark . The male ...
Page 29
... watch a pair of Robins when they have a nest full of young birds , we shall see the female bring the greater part of their food . The male bird continues to sing until the young have left their nest ; but if there is to be no other ...
... watch a pair of Robins when they have a nest full of young birds , we shall see the female bring the greater part of their food . The male bird continues to sing until the young have left their nest ; but if there is to be no other ...
Page 36
... watch the frolics of these happy creatures . The small beetles that whirl about on the surface of still waters have commenced their gambols anew , and fishes are again seen darting about in the streams . A few butterflies , companions ...
... watch the frolics of these happy creatures . The small beetles that whirl about on the surface of still waters have commenced their gambols anew , and fishes are again seen darting about in the streams . A few butterflies , companions ...
Page 56
... watch them and become ac- quainted with their beauty , before they are lost in the crowd that will soon appear . Our ideas of May , being derived , in part , from the descriptions of English poets and rural authors , abound in many ...
... watch them and become ac- quainted with their beauty , before they are lost in the crowd that will soon appear . Our ideas of May , being derived , in part , from the descriptions of English poets and rural authors , abound in many ...
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Common terms and phrases
agreeable attractive autumn Baltimore Oriole beauty become silent birds Bluebird Bobolink branches brood Catbird charm cheerful chiefly chirping Clapper Rail colors Crow Daines Barrington delightful destroyed early earth eggs familiar feathered female fields flight flocks flowers foliage forest frequently garden Golden Robin Grackles granivorous grass green ground habits hear heard Hence hour hues insects larva larvæ leaves listen lively loud male meadows melancholy melodious Mocking-Bird modulation month morning motions musical Nature nest never night nocturnal notes numbers observed orchards pastures peculiar perch places plaintive pleasant pleasure plumage prey Purple Finch Purple Martin quadrupeds Quail ramble rapid Red-Thrush Redwing remarkable repeated resemble Rose-breasted Grosbeak Scarlet Tanager season seems seen seldom sight sing singing-birds snow solitary song Song-Sparrow songster sounds species spring strain summer swallows thrushes trees tribe twilight utters Veery Vireo voice warblers warbling watch Whippoorwill wild wings winter Wood-Sparrow Woodpecker woods Wren yellow young
Popular passages
Page 43 - Every one's a funny fellow; every one's a little mellow; Follow, follow, follow, follow, o'er the hill and in the hollow! Merrily, merrily, there they hie; now they rise and now they fly; They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle and wheel about, — With a "Phew, shew, Wadolincon! listen to me, Bobolincon ! — Happy's the wooing that's speedily doing, that's speedily doing, That's merry and over with the bloom of the clover!
Page 43 - Phew, shew, Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon, Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups ! I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap Bobbing in the clover there, — see, see, see !" Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree, Startled by his rival's song, quickened by his raillery. Soon he spies the rogue afloat...
Page 129 - Drop it, drop it, — cover it up, cover it up, — pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." But this was not corn, and so it was safe from such enemies as he. You may wonder what his rigmarole, his amateur Paganini performances on one string or on twenty, have to do with your planting, and yet prefer it to leached ashes or plaster. It was a cheap...
Page 40 - His style of preaching is not declamation. Though constantly talking, he takes the part of a deliberative orator, who explains his subject in a few words and then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect upon it. We might suppose him to be repeating moderately, with a pause between each sentence, - You see it — you know it — do you hear me?— do you believe it?' All these strains are delivered with a rising inflection at the close, and with a pause, as if waiting for an answer.
Page 213 - Already with thee ! tender is the night, And haply the Queen Moon is on her throne, Clustered around by all her starry fays ; But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.
Page 206 - Hark ! from the next green tree tny song commences: Music and discord join to mock the senses, Repeated from the tree-tops and the fences, From hill and hollow. A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; « Outspeak they all in turn without a stammer, — Brisk Polyglot! Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural ; Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart- Wheel, thou canst utter all, And all-untaught.
Page 211 - it is stated, that " a cautious observer, having found a nest of five young jays, remarked, that each of these birds, while yet very young, consumed at least fifteen of these full-sized grubs in one day, and of course would require many more of a smaller size.
Page 64 - But the notes of the Robin are all melodious, all delightful, loud without vociferation, mellow without monotony, fervent without ecstasy, and combining more of sweetness of tone, plaintiveness, cheerfulness, and propriety of utterance than the notes of any other bird. The Robin is the Philomel of morning twilight in New England and in all the northeastern States of this continent. If his sweet notes were wanting, the mornings would be like a landscape without the rose, or a summerevening sky without...
Page 43 - Winterseeble, Conquedle, — A livelier set was never led by tabor, pipe, or fiddle, — Crying, " Phew, shew, Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon, Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups ! I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap Bobbing in the clover there — see, see, see...
Page 255 - the sad and wolfish call of the solitary Loon, which, like a dismal echo, seems slowly to invade the ear, and, rising as it proceeds, dies away in the air.