. Birds of village and field: a bird book for beginners . s. o How perfectly the little feathered messenger isfitted for his task ! See the long bill that enableshim to probe the flower tubes. AVatcli him as hefeeds before a honeysuckle. There he stands assteadily as though perched on a branch, heldup by the whirring mill fan-wings whose rapidmotion renders them almost invisible. Whatpower is lodged in those inch-long feathers! Inautumn they will bear him away over rivers, overmountains, far from the snow-covered north, tothe land of the orange and palm. In nature the race is to the swift, and
. Birds of village and field: a bird book for beginners . s. o How perfectly the little feathered messenger isfitted for his task ! See the long bill that enableshim to probe the flower tubes. AVatcli him as hefeeds before a honeysuckle. There he stands assteadily as though perched on a branch, heldup by the whirring mill fan-wings whose rapidmotion renders them almost invisible. Whatpower is lodged in those inch-long feathers! Inautumn they will bear him away over rivers, overmountains, far from the snow-covered north, tothe land of the orange and palm. In nature the race is to the swift, and surelythese little Humminobirds are well fitted to com-pete with their fellows. Even their dress is per-fectly adapted to the conditions of their attract the favor of his lady, the Hummingbirdwooer has a throat of flaming ruby; while she, towhom a flashing gorget woidd bring danger atthe nest, is clad in quiet green; and the young,untaught in the ways and dangers of the greatworld, are dressed in the inconspicuous tints oftheir mother. CATBIRD. Fig. : Galeoscoptes carolinensis. Body, slate gray; cap and tail, black; patch under base of tail,reddish brown. Length, about 9 inches. Geographic Distribution. — Breeds from the northern por-tion of the Gulf states to New Brunswick ; west to theRocky Mountains and Saskatchewan ; winters from Floridasouthward to Panama. To any one who really knows him, it seemsalmost incredible that this much loved bird ofour gardens and homes, this Mockingbird of thenorth, should be the subject of persecution, but soit often is; for however much the birds trust us,and whatever pleasure they give us, if they chanceto hel}) themselves to ever so little of our fruit —material creatures that we are — all the rest is CATBIRD 7 forgotten, and they are at once doomed. Ordi-narily the Catbirds take such a small fraction ofthe growing fruit that we should be glad to sharewith them, and even when they take more, a thirdof their diet for
Size: 1771px × 1411px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1898
