Umber

“ At first sight this moth (Plate 102, Fig. 7) might be mistaken for a small specimen of the Waved Umber (Hemerophila abruptaria) , but it will be noted that the dark stripe on the fore wings starts from the middle of the inner margin, and runs to just below the tips of the wings; the outer margin of the hind wings is not wavy, and the antennæ of the male are not pectinated. ”

“ Similar conjugal and paternal tenderness is exhibited by the umber-bird, a stork-like bird about the size of a raven, which leads a quiet, nocturnal life in the forest, and builds an enormous nest, one of the most remarkable built by any bird. ”

“ In this bird the under parts have become a dirty-looking umber; on the upper part of the breast there are a few feathers left marbled with blackish umber, these alone showing clearly enough that it is a case of the extraction of the dark colouring matter. The upper breast is drab, with the edges of the feathers worn and abraded-looking. The flanks have a few of the dark large new feathers coming, bordered with dull white. The general appearance of the upper parts is paler than in first plumage, the bill is clearer, and the nail nearly all white. ”

“ The eggs of the Red-tail exhibit great variations in nearly every respect except their shape, which is pretty uniformly a spheroidal-oval. Their ground-color varies from white to a dingy rusty drab, their markings vary greatly in colors, shades, size, frequency, and distribution. In some the markings are small, few, and light, and the egg appears to be of an almost homogeneous brownish-white. In others the ground is completely concealed by large and confluent blotches of deep and dark purplish-brown, burnt umber, and a peculiar shade known as Dutch umber. ”

“ If one does not happen to notice how the umber-bird slips out and in one would never imagine that these structures were hollow, but would rather take them for the eyrie of a bird of prey, especially as eagles and horned owls frequently nest on the top of them. But when one has seen the real owner enter, and has inspected the nest closely, one finds that the interior is divided into three compartments, connected by holes which serve as doors, and further observation reveals that these three compartments answer the purpose of hall, reception or dining room, and brooding-chamber. ”

“ Entirely umber. P. 1.5-2.5 cm. exp. umb. hoary-fuscous when dry; g. adnate, broad, distant, entire; s. 7-11 cm. equal, slender, straight, veil forming a distant white zone; sp. ——.
var. curta, Fr. S. 2-3 cm. long, wavy, peronate with white veil, cingulate, umbo blackish.
punctatus, Fr. P. 1.5-2.5 cm. thin, conico-convex, glabrous, hoary-umber (tan) , at length even; g. adnate, very distant, entire, brownish-cinnamon; s. 4-7 cm. slender, undulate, fibrillosely striate, brownish-yellow, a zone formed by the fugacious pale fuscous veil; sp. 7 × 4.
[Pg 195] ”

“ The German Swiss use it of the French Swiss, hence the canton Wallis or Valais. The Old French name for the walnut is noix gauge, Lat. Gallica. The relation of umbrella to umber is pretty obvious. The former is Italian—
"A little shadow, a little round thing that women bare in their hands to shadow them. Also a broad brimd hat to keepe off heate and rayne. Also a kinde of round thing like a round skreene that gentlemen use in Italie in time of sommer or when it is very hote, to keepe the sunne from them when they are riding by the way."
(Florio.) ”

“ The eggs are said to be from eight to twelve in number, never more; they are larger and more spherical than those of the common umbellus, and are of a darker shade. The female sits upon them about twenty days, and as soon as the young can extricate themselves from the shell the mother leads them away, the male having previously left her. ”

“ Or they would put these breaks across a mubboon or small tributary of the main creek, as a flood was going down, and, as the water ran out of the mubboon, fish would be caught in numbers in the break. ”

“ How can we doubt the existence of mermaids, when we find animals assuming the forms of umbrellas, goblets, and bells! Look! here comes a living umbrella, moving through the water by opening and shutting itself. Now, reader, it flaps itself under your very nose, and you may inspect it narrowly. You will perceive, that it is rather an uncommon sort of umbrella, as it has four sticks instead of one, and is furnished with a number of tendril-like appendages. ”

“ In the rainy season, for instance, a Chinese boatman wears a coat of straw, and a hat of straw and bamboo. Such a dress, of course, renders an Umbrella superfluous, and it matters little to the wearer how hard the rain may pelt. Nevertheless great numbers of Umbrellas are exported from China to India, the Indian Archipelago, and even South America. In the 1851 Exhibition two only were shown. Of them the report says, "They present nothing remarkable beyond the great number of ribs, which amount to forty-two. The ribs are formed of wood ”

“ SOME BOYS, playing near a pond, saw a number of Frogs in the water and began to pelt them with stones. They killed several of them, when one of the Frogs, lifting his head out of the water, cried out: “Pray stop, my boys: what is sport to you, is death to us.” ”

“ Carl sat musing until the sun leaped above the prairie, and in the grass about him all the small creatures of day began to tune their tiny instruments. Birds and insects without number began to chirp, to twitter, to snap and whistle, to make all manner of fresh shrill noises. The pasture was flooded with light; every clump of ironweed and snow-on-the-mountain threw a long shadow, and the golden light seemed to be rippling through the curly grass like the tide racing in. ”

“ Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour. ”

“ Nothing of any great interest occurred on this march, until one day, while proceeding up Prairie Dog Creek, Major North and myself went out in advance of the command several miles and killed a number of buffaloes. ”

“ Mummel has caught the intruder and taken him down to his abode below the lake. There the unhappy youth has had to act as a servant.
Whenever anyone attempts to come too close to his daughters, too, Mummel takes [108] away their human shapes at once. He transforms them into water lilies, and makes them stand with bowed heads along the farther shore of the lake.
Every morning, too, as soon as the first light of day begins to appear, the beautiful figures leave their fairy dance upon the lake. Mummel transforms them into their lily forms and makes them stand in the water along the shore. ”

“ Mummel, the great angry water god, has many beautiful daughters. These he guards jealously, and will allow no one to see them in their maiden forms except by the dim moonlight.
These beautiful water nymphs are not at all like their stern father. They are pure, and gentle and graceful and kind. They never do harm to anyone, and are not displeased if people come to visit the lake. Indeed they like to have people come to see them dance upon the water at night. ”

“ Whether the femininity of the umbrella inspired confidence, or the desperate state of my feelings urged me on, I cannot say, but getting on the edge of my nest, putting my foot in the strong oak curved handle for a stirrup, and grasping the staff firmly, I slipped from the vines, and floated slowly down, the old umbrella popping and straining as if it was going to fly to pieces. ”

“ The place is haunted by Mummel, a great water god, [102] and by his daughters, the beautiful water sprites.
“Long years ago,” the mother went on, “a man committed a great crime in order that he might get a rich treasure. In his flight he came to the Mummelsee. He could not swim across with the bag of treasure! What should he do? He knew that he would be caught unless he did something at once.
“‘Ah! I will just drop it into the edge of the lake,’ he said to himself. ‘The water is dark and no one will be able to find the Treasure. ”

“ Mag. 251, opens its upper, or central, flowers first, contrary to the usual order in its genus; both which instances prove such a diversity to be of small moment.
Umbella, an Umbel, for which some authors retain the obsolete old English name of Rundle. In this several flower-stalks, or rays, nearly equal in length, spread from one common centre, their summits forming a level, convex, or even globose surface, more rarely a concave one. When each ray is simple and single-flowered, it is called a simple umbel, as those of Allium ursinum, Engl. Bot. ”

“ On that morning, at the Elwood Landing, on the western shore of Umbagog, stood a collected group of excited people, of different ages and sexes, gazing anxiously across the lake in the direction of the great inlet, as if expecting the appearance of some object or person from that quarter. ”

“ Some entomologists, nervously sensitive to public opinion, are, however, somewhat shy of sporting these umbrella nets, for should rain perchance come down while he is on the road, the villagers may be astonished at the insane spectacle of a man scuttling along through the torrent and getting drenched through, while he carries a good-looking umbrella carefully under his arm for fear it should get wet ”

“ Any one of several species of sciænoid food fishes of the genus Umbrina, especially the Mediterranean species (U. cirrhosa) , which is highly esteemed as a market fish; — called also ombre, and umbrine.
Umbra tree (Bot.) , a tree (Phytolacca diocia) of the same genus as pokeweed. It is native of South America, but is now grown in southern Europe. It has large dark leaves, and a somber aspect. The juice of its berries is used for coloring wine. J. Smith (Dict. Econ. Plants) . ”

“ The Umba ground is always made at a sandy place, where there is loose soil, which is banked up, by means of boomerangs and feet, into a ridge, which encloses a square with several interior divisions. At one end there is an opening for the men to go in and out, and it faces the direction from which the visitors have come. It is the men called Tarrima who make the mound, and indeed they do most of the work in making the Umba ground.
During the ceremonies the novice has to climb a straight young tree free from branches, without a tomahawk or any aid whatever. ”

“ B. umbellus. Rump with cordate light spots; sides with transverse dark spots. Tail with two gray bands (one terminal) , with a broad blackish zone between them. Cervical tufts glossy black or dark brown, with a semi-metallic steel-blue or green border.
Prevailing color bright ochraceous-rufous; tail always rufous in the Middle and Southern States, occasionally gray on the Alleghany Mountains, and in New England States; usually gray in Eastern British America. Hab. Eastern Province of North America ... var. umbellus.
Prevailing color bluish-ashy; tail always pale ash. Hab. ”

“ The others are larger, of a dark greenish-brown, less active in the water than on land, although they are most truly amphibious. The first conceal themselves beneath shelving rocks, stones, or water-plants; the others form a deep burrow in the damp earth, depositing the materials drawn up, as a man would do in digging a well. The manner in which they dispose of the mud you may see by glancing at the plate of the White Ibis, in my third volume of Illustrations, where also you will find a tolerable portrait of one of these creatures. ”

“ Easing her round sharp reefs, pushing through swift little passages where the current spurts deeply between larger stones, she may be pushed up to a huge tree trunk lying along the shore, surrounded by the deliciously soft and fluid mud loved by country urchins, the mud that schloops when one withdraws the sunken foot. ”

“ A tall, thin man hurried to the rescue, and just as Uncle John came in sight, leading his procession, a knife severed the crab's claw and Mumbles was free. Seeing his mistress, the puppy, still whining with pain, hurried to her for comfort, while Uncle John turned to the man and said:
"Thank you, Mr. Jones, for assisting our poor beast. Mumbles is an
Eastern dog, you know, and inexperienced in dealing with crabs." ”

“ Strange to say, it is a fact, melancholy enough, but for all that too true, that our forefathers, scarce seventy years agone, meekly endured the pelting of the pitiless storm without that protection vouchsafed to their descendants by a kind fate and talented inventors. The fact is, the Umbrella forms one of the numerous conveniences of life which seem indispensable to the present generation, because just so long a time has passed since their introduction, that the contrivances which, in some certain degree, previously supplied their place, have passed into oblivion. ”

“ Now, as you [Pg 278] are said to be a man of observation and energy, Mr. Phillips, let us have the benefit of your opinion and advice in the matter.”
“It is my opinion,” said the hunter, in response, after dropping his head a moment in study, “it is very clearly my opinion that the fellow will now aim to reach some of the eastern cities,—ever the Umbagog, most likely, in a canoe that he keeps concealed somewhere on the western shore, which is only a mile or two over this ridge, that rises from the other bank of the river, here against us. ”