Louis Figuier

“ Of an ardent character, the Cock cannot suffer a rival at his side; thus battles are inevitable when two Cocks inhabit the same poultry-yard. With flashing eyes, head lowered, and feathers of the neck bristled, the two adversaries observe each other for a time in silence. At last the storm breaks with violence; they precipitate themselves upon each other, and fearlessly fight with both beak and spurs till the earth is reddened with their blood. ”

“ The Swan, which belongs to the family of Lamellirostral Palmipedes, has been an object of admiration in all ages for its noble and elegant proportions, the graceful curvature of its neck, its small and shapely oval head, its beak so prominent at the base, the gracefully-swelling rotundity of its body, its plumage 271 so abundant in down, and its colour of purest white of the species with which we are most familiar, and is the finest and largest of all our aquatic birds. ”

“ These little inoffensive creatures, so common in Southern Europe, are slender and active; their movements are so rapid that they escape the eye as quickly as a bird. They require a mild temperature, and seek shelter among ruins. When the sun strikes with its meridian force upon a wall, they may be seen basking in its rays, enjoying themselves delightedly upon the heated surface. They seem to be pervaded with the blessed warmth, and mark their pleasure by soft undulations of the tail. ”

“ The male Swan is equally with the female attentive to the young brood, and watches them with a rare devotion. He carries them about on his back, takes them under his wings to warm them, and never abandons them while they are still young. It is a beautiful sight to see him gliding over the water at the head of his young flock, looking far ahead with an inquisitive eye, and prepared to sweep away any opposing obstacle ”

“ The Lark is the living emblem of happy, peaceful labour, the songster of the cultivated earth. In the early dawn the male bird rises aloft, and with soaring wing fills the air with his joyous notes, and calls the husbandman to his labour. Higher and higher he mounts, until he is lost to sight ”

“ You may see a pair coming up from a distance, flying at the height of a few yards over the waves, their long wings winnowing the air and impelling them on by starts as they wind their way in undulating and graceful movements. Suddenly their flight is arrested over a large pool left on the sands by the retreating tide. With quick beats of their wings they hover almost stationary over the water, with downward-pointed bills, intently searching for their prey beneath. ”

“ There is a wonderful charm of companionship in birds—they give animation to the scene, skipping from bush to bush, or skimming the surface of land and water. They please the eye by their graceful shape and plumage, and they charm our ears by their ceaseless warblings. Even in this sense we lie under a debt of gratitude to these graceful inhabitants of the air. But this is far from being the limit of the benefits we derive from them. The birds of the poultry-yards furnish our most delicate food; their eggs form a considerable branch of trade, and are indispensable in the kitchen ”

“ The Hen fulfils the duties of a mother with incomparable devotion and tenderness; she follows her young brood step by step, calls them to her when they stray, and seeks nourishment for them, thinking little of her own wants till theirs are satisfied. Against all aggressors, with every feather bristling and angry eyes, she warns them, protects them, and defends them. If a bird of prey appears, she hastens to meet it, and assumes such a menacing attitude, that few will not immediately take to flight. The chickens develop rapidly. At the end of a month the crest of the males shows itself ”

“ Brushwood and thickets, witch-elms and evergreen trees, growing on the banks of some retired water-course, are its favourite dwelling. It is among these that it establishes its nest, built without care, at irregular height, and sometimes even on the ground. It possesses this peculiarity—that it sings not only during the day, but also in the night; but let any alarming noise approach its retreat, and it stops instantly. It seems to love solitude above all things. Audubon, the American naturalist, has described some of the distinctive characteristics of the bird with a few graphic touches. ”

“ The Condor's power of vision is so great that it commands a view of the plain beneath from the greatest heights, and although it is no longer visible to the denizens of earth, their slightest movements cannot escape its piercing sight. When it catches view of prey, it partly folds its wings and descends upon it with the rapidity of lightning. ”

“ The mother directs their first efforts, uttering a peculiar cry to attract them when she discovers a favourite morsel; defending them courageously, and, with a total abnegation of self, meeting the most formidable enemies; sometimes going so far for their protection as to offer herself a victim. How pitiful are the cries of a Swallow whose nest is built under the roof of a house on fire! ”

“ The Owl, with its staring aspect and noiseless flight, has become with them a bird of ill omen; its doleful hoot echoing through the shades of night, over the house of sickness, is an infallible prediction of death. ”

“ When the harvest is deemed sufficient—when the day's sport is concluded—his companions are notified, and the fowler is hoisted to the summit of the cliff.
How incredible is the address, and how great the courage, required to induce a man to let himself be suspended by a slender cord over a precipice some hundreds of feet in height, and how hazardous, how frightful the peril! The cord might be cut by chafing against the sharp rock. What risks he runs on changing his place! It has sometimes happened to those above to hear one loud heart-rending shriek—the cry of despair. ”

“ Partridges are of a shy and timid nature, which shows itself in many ways. Nor are their suspicious fears unjustifiable, when it is remembered how numerous are their foes, for foxes and birds of prey make continual and unsparing war upon them. The latter especially are particularly dreaded. At the mere sight of one of the Falcon tribe a Partridge will stop as though struck with stupor, and so overcome with fear as almost to be incapable of concealing itself, remaining absolutely immovable; and it is not until the dreaded enemy is gone that it regains self-control. ”

“ The Sandpipers are natives of the northern parts of the Old and New World; they visit France twice a year—in spring and autumn. They breed in the North, and lay from three to five eggs. The extreme delicacy of their flesh causes them to be much sought after by epicures; they are, therefore, captured in every possible way. Extinction will probably be the result. To gratify the tastes of the gourmand and the bloodthirsty instincts of the poacher, the lovers of nature are, forsooth, to be deprived of one of the most innocent and beautiful families of birds. ”

“ Love for soaring through space must be the cause of this activity, as it never pursues its prey, but descends upon it from the prodigious heights at which it may be hovering with incredible velocity, and seizing it in its claws, bears it to some adjacent tree to be devoured. Its food consists of leverets, moles, rats, field-mice, reptiles, and fish—the latter it catches on the surface of the water. It builds its nest on lofty trees, rarely on rocks. It is a constant resident in some parts of France, and is met with in nearly all countries of Europe. ”

“ If you hide yourself behind the thick reeds so that they have no suspicion of your presence, you may see these noble birds bending their necks into the most graceful curves, plunging their heads into the water, catching it up in their bills, and scattering it behind them, the drops falling round their bodies in glittering rain ”

“ But to obtain what they truly consider a blessing from heaven, they have to surmount innumerable difficulties, the birds often building their nests in islets almost unapproachable, or on rocks rising perpendicularly out of the water. Slung upon seats hung from the summits of these crags, the courageous islanders suspend themselves, in the breeding season, to gather and make, so to speak, a harvest of the sea-fowls' eggs. ”

“ Falcons (from falx, a reaping-hook) are marvellously organised for rapine, and realise the ideal of a bird of prey. They have a short bill, bent from the base, with a very strong tooth on each side of the upper mandible, with which an indentation corresponds in the lower portion. The wings of this bird are long and pointed, causing its flight to be at once powerful, rapid, and agile. Its tarsi are short, and its claws hooked and sharp. When we add to all this a most penetrating vision and enormous strength, it will easily be understood that these birds inspire terror wherever they go. ”

“ When the darkness of night gives place to the first dawn of day—when the soft gleam of Aurora has appeared on the horizon, all is transformed, all is vivified on the new-born earth, lately asleep and apparently deserted. ”

“ They will never contend with the living if they can glut their appetites on the dead. The Eagle attacks its enemies or its victims face to face; it pursues them, fights them, and seizes them by its own individual prowess. Vultures, on the contrary, however slight may be the resistance which they anticipate, combine in flocks like cowardly assassins, and are rather thieves than warriors—birds of carnage rather than birds of prey; for these are the only birds which are so madly devoted to carrion that they pick the very bones of a decaying carcass. ”

“ During the breeding season they visit islands where they are sure to find thousands of eggs as well as young birds. In spite of the piteous shrieks of the parents and the plaintive cries of the young, the whole colony is sacrificed to their gluttony; the eggs are sucked, and the scarcely-hatched young ones are devoured. But, as they are always cowards, whenever these sea-vagabonds notice the approach of a bird more warlike than themselves, although, perhaps, much smaller, their only endeavour is to hide themselves, or depart with all the celerity which their long wings can give them. ”

“ The plumage being of a sombre funereal black, and the voice so unmusical, have doubtless been the reasons why they have long been considered birds of ill omen. When taken young, they are tamed with great facility, even to permitting them to go at large, for they will neither rejoin their own race nor desert the neighbourhood where they have been kindly treated. True, they may go into the fields to seek for food, but when the increasing shadows predict the approach of night, their familiar resting-place in the house of their protector will be sought. ”

“ The Condor passes the night at great elevations, perched on the cleft of a rock. As soon as the rising sun gilds the peaks of the mountains it raises its neck, hitherto buried between its shoulders, and shaking its wide wings, launches into space. The impetus of its own weight at first carries it downwards, but soon recovering 636 itself, it traverses the aërial space with majestic ease and grandeur. Almost imperceptible movements of the wings are sufficient to carry it in every direction ”

“ The Tern, or Sea Swallow, as it is commonly called, on account of its long pointed wings and forked tail, appears to be, like the Swallow properly so called, a perfect disregarder of rest. They may be seen soaring in the air at a very great height, and then suddenly darting down upon their prey, which their piercing sight has enabled them to descry in the water. Often, too, they may be noticed skimming over the surface of the waves with astonishing rapidity, and seizing in their flight any fish which is imprudent enough to show itself. ”

“ In the silence of night, when all nature sleeps and life seems suspended, all at once certain notes of harmony rise from under the dense foliage, as if to protest against the universal silence. It is sometimes a plaintive cry, prolonged into a stifled sigh, now a continuous warbling, now a lively song, gay and melodious, which the whole forest re-echoes to. ”

“ Their flight over the sea seems incessant, and it is rarely they are seen swimming. When they need rest, they seek some solitary, isolated rock in the ocean. They congregate in flocks more or less numerous, and they manifest so much attachment for individuals of their own species, that, when one of them is wounded by the sportsman's 300 gun, the others surround it, full of grief and sympathy, nor will they leave it until all hope of saving its life is at an end. ”

“ The tenderness of the mother for her young—a tenderness so full of delicacy and foresight—is, we say, only the result of instinct. It is agreed on all hands, however, that this instinct singularly resembles the intelligence called reason, and, in the opinion of many, is nothing else.
Reproduction in birds occurs at intervals regulated by nature, and they are distinguished, above all other creatures, for the fidelity of their affections. It is frequently a matter of observation that a male attaches itself to a female, and they henceforth live together till the death of one or both ”