Richard Lydekker

“ The usual cry of the bittern is, as already mentioned, a hoarse, raven-like croak; and it is only during the breeding-season that the male utters the resounding boom, which has been compared to the bellowing of a bull, and on a still night may be heard at a distance of a mile or more. ”

“ The eggs, which are brooded by each sex in turn for a period of fully four weeks, have bluish coloured shells, covered with a rough chalky crust. When incubating, the bird sits with its legs bent beneath the body, although it was long supposed that these hung down on the sides of the nest.
Hundreds or even thousands of flamingoes may congregate in these breeding-colonies; and there are few more beautiful sights in nature than to see a flock of these splendid birds, especially the scarlet American species, rise on the wing and display their full colouring and plumage in the sunlight. ”

“ FOR many years it was reported by the natives of Australia that the extraordinary warm-blooded quadruped known to naturalists as the duckbill, or platypus, produced its young from eggs laid in a burrow by the female. That a mammal—and a mammal, although of an altogether peculiar and out of the way type, the creature undoubtedly is—should lay eggs was, however, too much for the minds of stay-at-home naturalists, and the fiat accordingly went forth that the native story was to be discredited. And discredited it therefore was. In nature, as in other things, truth will, however, ultimately prevail ”

“ In the pursuit of its prey the polar bear displays great craft and ingenuity. When it spies a seal sleeping by a hole in the ice, or on the edge of an ice-floe, if it succeeds in approaching undetected, it glides swiftly and silently into the water, swims a certain distance under the surface, and then rises to observe the situation of its victim. ”

“ The delicate rufous fawn of the upper-parts accords with the yellow tint of the rocks or sand amid which these beautiful creatures spend most of their time; while, when the animal is standing in the full glare of an Eastern sun, the white of the under surface counteracts the effect of the dark shade thrown by the body, and thus, even at comparatively short distances, makes for more or less complete invisibility. ”

“ There has never been a more excellent colourist or more skilful draughtsman of shape and action; and there is none with a more masterly touch or more unmistakable individuality. There is no misunderstanding his intention. The lifelike likeness of the animal set in its local atmosphere is his predominating endeavour. His range is of the widest, and his subjects all come alike to him; he has no preference for any particular group or family, but draws them all, vertebrate and invertebrate, with power, truth, and sympathy. ”

“ LIVING amid eternal ice and snow, the polar bear, which is equalled in bodily size only by some of the huge brown bears of Alaska and Kamchatka, evidently owes its white, or in some instances pale cream-coloured, coat to its surroundings; this white livery, like that of the polar hare, being worn throughout the year. The species is always alluded to simply as the polar bear, although its full title should be the north polar bear; the Antarctic, so far as we know at present, having no land mammals. ”

“ And when the build of the elk is considered in relation to its mode of life, we see that what appears ugly and ungainly to our eyes is merely adaptation to a particular mode of life. For in summer the elk spends much of its time wading belly-deep in marshes and lakes in search of the water-plants which form a large proportion of its food at this season; and in this pursuit its long limbs must obviously be of the greatest advantage, while the broad and mobile muzzle is specially well adapted for gathering in the floating leaves and stalks. ”

“ ALTHOUGH many kinds of gazelles are now known, the gazelle par excellence, that is to say, the ghazal of the Arabs, is the beautiful little species represented in the Plate, which, in order to distinguish it from its relatives, naturalists have designated the dorcas. And no more beautiful and delicately made creature exists in the world than this same gazelle, which has formed the theme of poets—especially in the East—for centuries, as the emblem of beauty, elegance, and fleetness. ”

“ Frequently they take up their position on some large rock in the neighbourhood of the burrow, on which they can either sit up and survey the prospect, or bask in the warmth of the summer sun.
Their extraordinary wariness and the rapidity with which they disappear from view are due to their numerous enemies, among which man, foxes, and eagles and other birds-of-prey are the chief. It requires only the shadow of an eagle’s wings to make them utter their piercing, whistling scream and vanish into the holes, from which they do not reappear for some time. ”

“ Quickly each bird climbs out to the end of a branch and sets to work at cracking nuts, or devouring softer fruit. When such a flock of araraunas is feasting, little is seen of the birds themselves, but their presence is amply manifested by their incessant and discordant cries and screams. If a shot be fired in the neighbourhood, the whole flock rises immediately in a gold and azure cloud. ”

“ The black swan of Australia, from which the Swan River takes its name, is not perhaps the ideal black swan of the poet, for, as a matter of fact, it has a good deal of white in its wings, although but little of this is visible when the wings are closed, as in the illustration. Moreover, the general colour of the plumage is brownish black, rather than pure black, while the beak is crimson with a white tip, and the eyes are scarlet. From all other swans this species differs by the curling feathers in the region of the shoulder, and the extreme shortness of the tail. ”

“ Elk are adepts in concealing themselves in the thickets to which they resort during the daytime.
In winter, when they are compelled to subsist on bark and twigs, especially those of the birch, these giant deer experience very hard times; and in North America a bull and two or three cows often form what is called a “yard” in the forest, by constantly trampling down the snow over a certain area, and thus keeping themselves from being snowed up. The female gives birth to one or two calves at a time, which are even more ungainly-looking than their parents. ”

“ As is the case with all members of the parrot tribe, the union between the sexes of the ararauna is very close: the two members of a pair are thorough comrades, and live only for themselves and their offspring. At the pairing-season each couple of the older birds resorts to the same spot, and often to the same tree, as has served them previously as a breeding-place. For the nest a tall tree is always selected, and a slit in the trunk or a hollow in one of the branches is enlarged by means of the powerful beak until a cavity large enough to contain the nest is excavated. ”

“ His lions, elephants, zebras, and antelopes are so real that we feel we are gazing at them on the plains of East Africa. The landscapes are simple but intense; sunlight is there, and the trees and grass are just those that grow in the habitat of these species. Kuhnert has, as it were, got inside the very skin of African life, and draws you insensibly within the charmed circle.”
In a gallery his works at once arrest attention by their vigorous realism. There is life within the frame of whatever he paints. ”

“ The wolf, which is in fact the ancestor of many domesticated breeds of dogs, is the largest representative of the Canidæ, although the typical wolf of northern Europe is much exceeded in point of size by those of certain other countries, the largest of all being the huge black wolf (Canis lupus pambasileus) of Alaska, which is almost as tall as an ordinary bear, and has a head of enormous proportions. Although many modern naturalists divide it into distinct species, the wolf has a circumpolar distribution, and in Asia ranges as far south as the Himalaya and the north-western frontier of India. ”

“ In spite of the fact that everybody knows a fox by sight, there is a difference of opinion among naturalists as to whether the fox of North America is specifically identical with the European animal. The differences between them are, however, so small and insignificant that the most sensible course is to regard the fox as a circumpolar species, with several local races, both in the Old World and in North America. ”

“ ALTHOUGH the elk can claim an easy superiority in the matter of size over all the other members of the deer tribe, it certainly cannot be accorded a high position in the scale of beauty. For, truth to say, it is an ugly and ungainly creature, with disproportionately long legs, and huge head terminating in a broad, flabby, and almost trunk-like muzzle. By the sportsman, however, it is held in high estimation, owing to the magnificent trophies formed by its great spreading antlers, which in Alaskan specimens may have a span of as much as six feet. ”

“ Their favourite resort for the day is a sandbank far out in a river, where they can stand and preen their feathers or doze without fear of interruption. At evening the flock returns to its sleeping-quarters in the forest.
All the graceful habits of these cranes can be studied in Europe, where the birds flourish in confinement, if given sufficient room. In captivity they soon learn to associate with the human beings and animals with whom they are brought into contact, and are specially keen in discriminating between those who treat them well and those who dislike their companionship. ”

“ In many parts of Europe the nest is built in the hole of a tree, but in the south is more generally placed in ruins, under the roofs of houses, in clefts in walls, or on cliffs and steep banks, in which deep holes are excavated for its reception. At the proper season it contains from five to six white eggs, which are brooded in turn by the male and female, and this so assiduously that it is often easy to capture the sitting bird with the hands. In laying white eggs, the roller conforms to the general rule of birds which nest in holes. ”

“ IT is not a little remarkable that three such closely related animals as the lion, the tiger, and the leopard or panther (for these two names really indicate the same species) should exhibit such striking dissimilarity in their type of colouring. The explanation of the difference in this respect is, however, probably to be found in the diversity of habit. Neither the lion nor the tiger can climb; and as the former is mainly an inhabitant of open and more or less desert country, it has assumed a uniformly sandy coat to accord with the tawny hue of its surroundings. ”

“ Although, as just mentioned, herons may be seen fishing at all hours of the day, they are chiefly nocturnal birds, and thus the very opposite of the kingfisher, which always captures its prey by daylight. When a heron sees a fish within reach, it strikes with unerring aim like a flash of lightning, and usually seizes its victim crosswise in its spear-like beak. ”

“ The mandarin drake is specially distinguished from the male of the summer duck by possessing a ruff on the neck formed of elongated, narrow, chestnut feathers streaked with whitish, and a chestnut and black “fan” rising up in a kind of tiger’s-claw shape on each side of the hind end of the body, and mainly formed by the broad innermost secondary feather of the wing; the helmet being copper-coloured, purple, and green, and separated by a broad white band enclosing the eye from the chestnut throat-ruff, while the beak is reddish brown. ”