A Natural History of the Globe: Of Man, of Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, and Plants, Volume 4Gray & Bowen, 1831 |
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Page 5
... female lays her eggs , without any lining but the well cemented mud that forms the sides of the building . She always lays two eggs , and no more ; and , as her legs are immoderately long , she straddles on the nest , while her legs ...
... female lays her eggs , without any lining but the well cemented mud that forms the sides of the building . She always lays two eggs , and no more ; and , as her legs are immoderately long , she straddles on the nest , while her legs ...
Page 19
... female is entirely brown . It has been called the parasite , from its habits of pursuing the lesser Gulls till they drop their ordure through fear , which this filthy animal catches and devours before it drops into the water . The ...
... female is entirely brown . It has been called the parasite , from its habits of pursuing the lesser Gulls till they drop their ordure through fear , which this filthy animal catches and devours before it drops into the water . The ...
Page 24
... female is less splendid ; an they differ in another respect , viz . that the male has very full and large crest , the female only the rudiment one .. It is common on the shores of the United States a well as in Europe . THE SMEW , OR ...
... female is less splendid ; an they differ in another respect , viz . that the male has very full and large crest , the female only the rudiment one .. It is common on the shores of the United States a well as in Europe . THE SMEW , OR ...
Page 25
... female has no crest ; the sides of the head red ; the wings of a dusky ash colour ; the throat is white . In oth- er respects it agrees with the male . The MINUTE MERGANSER is still less than the smew . The head is slightly crested ...
... female has no crest ; the sides of the head red ; the wings of a dusky ash colour ; the throat is white . In oth- er respects it agrees with the male . The MINUTE MERGANSER is still less than the smew . The head is slightly crested ...
Page 27
... female assist in forming it with great assiduity . The Swan lays seven or eight white eggs , one every other day , much larger than those of a goose , with a hard , and some- times a tuberous shell . It sits six weeks before its young ...
... female assist in forming it with great assiduity . The Swan lays seven or eight white eggs , one every other day , much larger than those of a goose , with a hard , and some- times a tuberous shell . It sits six weeks before its young ...
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Common terms and phrases
Alligator anal fins animal appears ash colour AVOSET bait Bean Goose belly bill bird boat body bottom breast breed brown called chiefly coasts common Common Gull creature deep DIVER dorsal fin DUCK dusky eggs Eider Duck England eyes feathers feed feet long female fish Fish-The fishermen five flesh four Gannet genus gills Goose Greenland grows GUILLEMOT GULL head Hooded Merganser hundred inches in length inches long inhabitants insects kind known lakes legs Little Auk Long-tailed Duck manner motion mouth neck nest pectoral fins Penguin placed plumage Porpesse pounds pounds weight prey rays Razorbill resembles rivers round seen seize seldom Serpent Shark shell shoal shores side skin slender Smew Snail sometimes spawn species Spermaceti spines spots surface Swan swimming tail taken teeth thick tribe upper viviparous weighs Whale whole wild wings wound yellow young
Popular passages
Page 107 - The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the mud and excites them to the attack. These yellowish and livid eels, resembling large aquatic serpents, swim on the surface of the water and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules. A contest between animals of so different an organization presents a very striking spectacle.
Page 184 - May to begin their expedition ; and then sally out by thousands from the stumps of hollow trees, from the clefts of rocks, and from the holes which they dig for themselves under the surface of the earth. At that time the whole ground is covered with this band of adventurers; there is no setting down one's foot without treading upon them.
Page 34 - THE cormorant is about the size of a large Muscovy duck, and may be distinguished from all other birds of this kind, by its four toes being united by membranes together ; and by the middle toe being toothed, or notched, like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey. The head and neck of this bird are of a sooty blackness ; and the body thick and heavy, more inclining in figure to that of the goose than the gull.
Page 154 - ... ocean. It is divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in length and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before them with a kind of rippling...
Page 13 - I have heard one of them, with a loud, long note, sound a kind of charge, to which the rest punctually attended, and they pursued their journey with renewed alacrity. Their flight is very regularly arranged ; they either go in a line abreast, or in two lines, joining in an angle in the middle.
Page 270 - These erect and put themselves in motion at the word of command. When their keeper sings a slow tune, they seem by their heads to keep time ; when he sings a quicker measure, they appear to move more brisk and...
Page 83 - 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 228 - Chatsworth, with the print of a toad upon it, and a tradition of the manner in which it was found. In the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences there is an account of a toad found alive and healthy in the heart of a very thick elm without the smallest entrance or egress.
Page 36 - They hunt about, they plunge, they rise a hundred times to the surface, until they have at last found their prey. They then seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry it without fail to their master. When the fish is too large, they then give each other mutual assistance : one seizes it by the head, the other by the tail, and in this manner carry it to the boat together.
Page 269 - He then saw the manner in which the eggs of these animals lie in the womb. In this creature there were six eggs, each of the size of a goose egg, but longer, more pointed, and covered with a membranous skin, by which also they were united to each other. Each of these eggs contained from thirteen to fifteen young ones, about six inches long, and as thick as a goose-quill. Though the female from...