A Natural History of the Most Remarkable Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, Reptiles, and Insects, Volume 2

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C. and C. Whittingham, 1825

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Page 10 - The length of the peacock, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail', is about three feet eight inches.
Page 80 - The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is about four feet in length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and nearly six feet across the wings.
Page 136 - THE electric organs of the torpedo are placed on each side of the cranium and gills, reaching from thence to the semicircular cartilages of each great fin, and extending longitudinally from the anterior extremity of the animal to the transverse cartilage, which divides the thorax from the abdomen...
Page 46 - The feathers on its wings and tail are black ; but those on its body, and under its wings, are of a greenish brown, with a fine red cast or gloss, which no silk or velvet can imitate. It has a small crest on its head, green at the bottom, and as it were gilded at the top ; and which sparkles in the sun like a little star in the middle of its forehead. The bill is black, straight, slender, and of the length of a small pin.
Page 163 - Pike is very flat, the eyes small, and of a gold tinge; the upper jaw broad, and shorter than the lower, which turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute punctures ; the teeth are very sharp, disposed not only in the front of the upper jaw, but in both sides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and has often three rows upon the tongue, and even down to the Orifice of the Stc..
Page 68 - Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an act of Edward the Fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted to keep a Swan, unless possessed of a freehold to the value of five marks a year.
Page 212 - The least effort then will destroy them; they scarcely can make any resistance; and equally unqualified for flight or opposition, even the naked Indians do not fear to assail them. But it is otherwise when this sleeping interval of digestion is over; they then issue, with famished appetites, from their retreats, while every animal of the forest flies from their presence.
Page 236 - They fly into the flame of candles, and sometimes into the dishes ; are very fond of ink and of oil, into which they are apt to fall and perish. In this case they soon turn...
Page 106 - These are olive coloured, and spotted with black. She sits about three weeks; and the young, who are covered with a thick down, are able to run within two or three days after they are hatched. The parent displays the fondest attachment to them, and employs innumerable interesting stratagems to avert approaching danger from them.
Page 92 - Now like a wearied stag, That stands at bay, the hern provokes their rage ; Close by his languid wing, in downy plumes Covers his fatal beak, and cautious hides The well-dissembled fraud. The falcon darts Like lightning from above, and in her breast Receives the latent death : down plump she falls Bounding from earth, and with her trickling gore Defiles her gaudy plumage.

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