Birds

“ The living bird, viewed closely and fearless of our presence, is so much more to the mind than all that is written--so infinitely more engaging in its spontaneous gladness, its brilliant vivacity, and its motions so swift and true and yet so graceful! Even leaving out the melody, what a charm it would add to our homes if birds were permitted to take the part there for which Nature designed them--if they were the "winged wardens" of our gardens and houses as well as of our fields. ”

“ There are what seem birds, gorgeous as sunset clouds, and less earthly,—animal forms, graceful as the antelope, leaping among crags more lustrous than diamond,—creatures mightier than leviathan; and mild-eyed as the dove couching among immortal flowers, or bathing in the crystal sea. ”

“ How interesting are these little birds to watch, and how delightful is it to watch them from the summit of precipices that "beetle o'er their base into the sea," where all is wild and tremendous, and in the midst of utter solitude! ”

“ With regard to birds, I see them mentally in two ways: each species which I have known and observed in its wild state has its type in the mind—an image which I invariably see when I think of the species; and, in addition, one or two or several, in some cases as many as fifty, images of the same species of bird as it appeared at some exceptionally favourable moment and was viewed with peculiar interest and pleasure. ”

“ This proved to be the kingdom of birds, where shrubberies, woodlands, lovely glens, and fine old trees were the homes of innumerable birds, who were busy making their nests, or collected together under rich foliage to chat about their little affairs, whilst others plumed their feathers in sunny ease. ”

“ The frightened birds cross each other confusedly in their flight; the young attempting to secure themselves, some of them lose their hold, and fall into the water with a splash; a shower of leaflets whirls downwards from the tree-tops, and you are glad to make your retreat from such a place. ”

“ To anyone who witnesses these gatherings and sees the birds rising from time to time from the wood, and appearing like a big black cloud in the sky, growing lighter and darker alternately as the birds scatter wide or mass themselves in a closer formation, until after wheeling about for some minutes they pour back into the trees; and who listens to the noise they make, as of a high wind in the wood, composed, as it is, of an infinity of individual voices, it must seem incredible that all these birds can keep in pairs. ”

“ In watching birds, a student learns to observe with lightning speed; to note color and comparative size; distinguishing marks such as crests or striped crowns, spots on breast or throat, bars on wings or tail; the length and shape of bill, wings, tail, and legs. He learns also to notice whether the bird walks, runs, hops, or “teeters”; whether its flight is swift or slow, direct like a robin’s, undulating like a goldfinch’s, soaring like that of hawks and eagles, labored or jerky like woodpeckers’, or graceful and “skimming” like that of swallows. ”

“ How often does one see birds placed in impossible positions, legs and beak painted the wrong colour, the tint of the iris completely ignored, fearful and wonderful productions called rockwork covered with all sorts of impossible leaves and plants and bits of variously coloured glass, birds in winter plumage cased amidst summer surroundings, and vice versâ, and even the breasts of sea-birds whitewashed! ”

“ Then the wise bird goes to sleep, and wakes up again only to resume with new zest its persistent and varied efforts, by which it becomes acquainted with all the details of its environment. Watch young birds on the wing gaining their mastery of the air in flight, young seals tumbling in the water, young foals scampering and kicking up their heels in the meadows. ”

“ They knew where to find the nests of birds of all kinds, fed the young ones, and petted them, until with a call they could bring from the trees clouds of glorious-coloured birds which would perch on their hands and arms and shoulders. ”

“ These birds are absurd-looking little creatures with long legs and longer toes, plump buff-coloured breasts, no tails, staring little eyes, and look for all the world like boiled potatoes with their jackets on, set up on hairpins and let loose on the rocks. ”

“ The three bird-flocks are divided; they give their share of music to the humming of the angels overhead; swift as riders on horses they travel quickly through the air. Two birds and seventy and seventy thousand and no lie in it, that is the number surely in every flock of the birds. ”

“ What busy little creatures these birds were! They searched every leaf and let no morsel of food, insect or plant, escape. How well they knew that birds that fly in the night must feast in the daytime. ”

“ During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks. Perhaps not an hour of leisure was spent elsewhere than in woods and fields, and to examine either the eggs, nest, young, or parents of any species of birds constituted my delight. It was about this period that I commenced a series of drawings of the birds of France, which I continued until I had upward of two hundred drawings, all bad enough, my dear sons, yet they were representations of birds, and I felt pleased with them. ”

“ The naturalists and the poets are eloquent on the varied attractions of these charming birds, descanting with admiration on the brilliant emerald plumage, the rosy collar of the neck, and the deep ruby-red hue of the beak. The species with the whole head of a changeable blossom-colour, we may reasonably infer, were unknown to them, for we cannot imagine they would have been silent on so conspicuous a feature of loveliness. Modern research has made us familiar with some eleven or twelve species, which are as generally favourites with us as with their early classical admirers. ”

“ I will venture therefore to recommend my younger readers, in classing birds, to think of them literally from top to toe—from toe to top I should say,—foot, body, and head, studying, with the body, the wings that bear it; and with the head, what brains it can bring to bear on practical matters, and what sense on sentimental. But indeed, primarily, you have to consider whether the bird altogether may not be little more than a fat, cheerful little stomach, in a spotted waistcoat, and with legs to it. ”

“ Ah, there is a beautiful bird indeed! What would you say if you were to see a bird that was yellow and green with crimson-sunset plumes, and with two long glossy ribbons in his tail, and two beautiful crests on his forehead, with blue legs and a gamboge bill, flying from tree to tree in your garden? ”

“ Yet what they but whisper I’ve guessed aright.
And the birds know it too, each gull and each tern
Sea-swallows skimming the sunset rocks,
Bird after bird in fast following flocks
Homeward wheeling, they pause to learn. ”

“ And because the especial talent of a bird is for flying, they agreed that the bird who could fly highest up into the blue sky, straight toward the sun, should be their king, king of all the feathered tribes of the air.
Therefore, after breakfast one beautiful morning, the birds met in the garden to choose their king. All the birds were there, from the largest to the smallest, chirping, twittering, singing on every bush and tree and bit of dry grass, till the noise was almost as great as nowadays at an election of two-legged folk without feathers. ”

“ Kill the birds and tear off their wings, their tails, their bright breasts and heads to sew into our hats or onto the sleeves and collars of our gowns and mantles. Kill them and bring them to us, that you may think us even more lovely than you have done before, when you compare our beauty with theirs and find that ours is the greater. Let us shine down the birds, for they are conceited and think themselves our rivals. ”

“ At favorite seasons the birds cross and recross each other’s paths in lawless mazes and fill the air with their strident creakings, while here and there couples and even trios sail about in great stiff curves with wings held aloft. ”

“ All of this we observe each season, and our thoughts probably travel to the delicate piece of architecture in the undergrowth, or to the hole excavated with such skill in the tree trunk; to the beautifully shaped eggs; to the parent birds carrying out their work with devoted zeal—in fact, to the whole series of events which complete the sexual life of the individual; and the attachment of a particular bird to a particular spot is readily accounted for in terms of one or other of the emotions which centre round the human home. ”

“ It is, as Sir William Jardine observes, "one of our most gaily tinted birds, and when darting down some wooded stream, and shone upon at times by the sunbeams, it may give some faint idea of the brilliant plumage that sports in the forests of the tropics, and that flits from place to place like so many lights in their deeply shaded recesses." ”

“ Then, here’s a collection of stuffed birds, whose rainbow plumage has darted through clustering foliage, fostered in other latitudes than ours. Nearly every species of beings that crawl, or fly, or walk, or swim, is here represented. ”

“ They are as sociable as "Love Birds," traveling in small flocks which, like one bird, dive into a tree and perch so close together that often several will be almost touching, and with common accord they take wing. ”

“ You go up among the clouds, and lay hold of these soaring gulls, and repose with them upon the sustaining atmosphere. The smaller birds,—the birds that build their nests in our trees, and sing for us at morning-red,—I will not describe. ”

“ Then the birds flew sadly away as quietly and quickly as ever they could, and set to work building their nests in holes in the trees and holes in the ground and in out-of-the-way places, making such a chattering meantime that neither they, nor any one else, could hear themselves think. ”

“ All the hook-clawed birds are moving against him, the kestrel, the buzzard, the vulture, the great-horned owl; they cleave the air, so that it resounds with the flapping of their wings; they are looking everywhere for the god, who cannot be far away ”

“ Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries surrounding bird life, and awaking, even in the most unthinking, some sense of wonder, is the way in which some of the smallest and most delicate of birds cross enormous stretches of land and water twice a year. ”

“ Nature appears to have exhausted herself in the lavish profusion of colors of every tint and shade with which she has adorned these gems of the animal world. They are the most splendidly colored and at the same time the most diminutive of birds. ”

“ The numberless acts of endearment, the many carollings, joyous flights, and bursts of ecstatic feeling, which other birds display at the commencement of the breeding season, are entirely dispensed with. ”

“ The Lord looked about Him at the flocks of newly made birds, who were preening their wings and wondering at their own bright feathers, and said to Himself,—
"I will make these pretty creatures useful, from the very beginning, so that in after time men shall love them dearly. Come, my birds," He cried, "come hither to me, and with the beaks which I have given you hollow me out here, and here, and here, basins for the lakes and pools which I intend to fill with water for men and for you, their friends. ”

“ And what little birds walk like the duck and the hen;
And when you know that you’ll know more than some men.
“Every bird that can scratch in the dirt can walk;
Every bird that can wade in the water can walk;
Every bird that has claws to catch prey with can walk,
One foot at a time—that is why they can walk.
“But most little birds that can sing you a song
Are so small that their legs are not very strong
To scratch with, or wade with, or catch things—that’s why
They hop with both feet. Little boy, good-by!”
[Pg 95]
Ducks on a Farm
One day last summer, we visited a farm. ”

“ Here, in the early morning, the birds assemble, and the males, which alone possess those magnificent plumes, or, rather, fountains of feathers, that spring from beneath the wings on either side, display them now to the best advantage, elevating them, spreading and shaking them out, and keeping them all the while in a state of quivering, tremulous vibration. ”

“ Not to mention the birds already familiar in books, there are a few interesting peculiarities of some of the late discoveries, and the possible varieties are by no means exhausted, so that each new traveler who penetrates into their chosen home will doubtless have opportunity to see his own name Latinized into dignity and bestowed upon some brilliant and hitherto unknown bird, having a new disposition of plumage, or a color more beautiful—if conceivable—than any before. ”

“ Like most short-winged, heavy-bodied birds, they fly straight to their point, rushing violently through the air with rapidly-beating wings. It is amusing to watch a bird flying in from the sea, and attempting to alight on a ledge of rock already crowded ”

“ I have read in books that we are called 'caged birds.' I cannot speak for others, but I had so much in this cage of mine that there was not room for it in the universe—at least that is what I then felt. ”

“ Large downs, the sheep-walks of an open unenclosed country, wild heaths, and commons, boggy pastures, wet meadow-lands, and marshes near lakes and rivers, are the favourite resorts of these beautiful birds. ”

“ Like the big bird, these smaller birds like to startle people. They flutter out from under the leaves, and with a whirring noise they fly far into the wood. There they perch on an old log, or a rock, and drum with their wings. ”

“ The birds are the little people that peep out at me, or pause and regard me curiously in this great temple of trees,—wrens, chippies, robins, bluebirds, catbirds, redstarts, and now and then rarer visitants. ”

“ Outside the trees dragged their leaves like nets through the depths of the air; the sound of water was in the room, and through the waves came the voices of birds singing. ”

“ You know those lovely plumes that I told you about, that the Great Bird of Paradise has growing from both his sides, under the wings, and how he lifts up his wings and shoots them right up into the air, so that they fall all over him, like two most beautiful fountains that meet in the air and mingle their waters together. ”