A Natural History of All the Most Remarkable Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, Reptiles, and Insects in the Known World: Illustrative of Their Natures, Dispositions, Manners, Habits, & C

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Dean and Munday, 1820 - 336 pages

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Page 205 - 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 174 - The length of the peacock, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail', is about three feet eight inches.
Page 251 - ... the pearl-fisheries of South America, every negro, to defend himself against these animals, carries with him into the water a sharp knife, which, if the fish offers to assault him, he endeavours to strike into its belly ; on which it generally swims off. The officers who are in the vessels keep a watchful eye on these voracious creatures; and, when they observe them approach, shake the ropes fastened to the negroes to put them on their guard.
Page 86 - ... weatherglass; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise...
Page 153 - THE length of this bird is about thirteen inches. The bill is light brown; eyes hazel; the general colour of its plumage is brown and ash, elegantly mixed with black; each feather is streaked down the middle with buff colour ; the sides of the head are tawny ; under each eye there is a small saffron-coloured spot, which has a granulated appearance; and between the eye and the ear, a naked skin of...
Page 253 - 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 216 - ... she takes them on her back, and swims a few yards with them, when she dives; and the young ones are left floating on the surface, obliged to take care of themselves. They are seldom seen afterwards on land. In Iceland the Eider Ducks generally build their nests on small islands, not far from the shore; and sometimes even near the dwellings of the natives, who treat them with so much attention and kindness as to render them nearly tame. From these birds is produced the soft down so well known...
Page 124 - ... and spread to a considerable breadth ; they are white on the edge and on the inside, except where two black bands mark the hollow of the ear with a Zebra-like variety. The height of this animal, at the shoulder, is four feet one inch ; behind the loins it only measures four feet.
Page 301 - 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 213 - The common TAME GOOSE is nothing more than the Wild Goose in a state of domestication. It is sometimes found white, though much more frequently verging to gray; and it is a dispute among men of taste, which should have the preference. These birds, in rural economy, are an object of attention and profit, and are no where kept in such vast quantities as in the fens of Lincolnshire; several persons there having as many as a thousand breeders. They are bred for the sake of their quills and feathers;...

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