. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Heermann Gull Conclave of An- cient Loafers, the sun-warmed, surf-soothed, pel- ican-fed concat- enation of incor- rigible indolents. "The night is for sleep and the day is for rest," says the Heermann Gull, who, being a Mexican (in spite of his Ger- man name, which is no fault of his), knows something of Spanish prov- erbs. It is permit- ted to loaf, in the Southland,—to loaf and to invite one's soul. The Swift does not see it all, n
. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Heermann Gull Conclave of An- cient Loafers, the sun-warmed, surf-soothed, pel- ican-fed concat- enation of incor- rigible indolents. "The night is for sleep and the day is for rest," says the Heermann Gull, who, being a Mexican (in spite of his Ger- man name, which is no fault of his), knows something of Spanish prov- erbs. It is permit- ted to loaf, in the Southland,—to loaf and to invite one's soul. The Swift does not see it all, nor yet Jenny Wren, always a-flutter. Who but a Heermann Gull, sitting tranquil on a timber hard by, could have shared such a vision of beauty as came to me once on a Redondo pier! Gazing northward, we viewed the breakers lengthwise, as they broke under a burning sun upon a perfect shore. There was a stiff breeze outside, so that the billow, fleeing under the lash of its master, suddenly encountered an area of immovable air. A sheet of spray would be torn from the crest of the incoming comber, and this would flash into a splendor of prismatic light. And the spectacle was more beautiful than that of a mere rainbow, for this Triton's crest would exhibit only one color at a time, a single hue of the immortal seven, raised to some electric shade of diaphanous brilliancy. Moreover, the illuminated mist changed color by sudden leaps in its shoreward progress, as though it were traversing the field of some heavenly spotlight, the defractive area of a prism de luxe, so large that it had to be served up to the human eye on the instalment plan. The commonest shade I caught was a lumiere green, or viridine, an instant vision of budding springtime. Taken in California HEERMANN GULLS, ADULTS AND IMMATURE Photo by W. L. Finley 1429. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these
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Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
