. 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 Western Red-tailed Hawk canyon back of the old Carter ranch is fairly stupendous. It is as though the ocean, at the word of some mystic command, had suddenly receded from a terrific tide-gut with its en- tourage of roaring reefs. There, are rounded bosses where the Plesio- saurus played; here, gloomy caverns which the urancient Kraken has only just made vacant; here, swirls in stones and crests of ripping reefs, which served as giant models for
. 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 Western Red-tailed Hawk canyon back of the old Carter ranch is fairly stupendous. It is as though the ocean, at the word of some mystic command, had suddenly receded from a terrific tide-gut with its en- tourage of roaring reefs. There, are rounded bosses where the Plesio- saurus played; here, gloomy caverns which the urancient Kraken has only just made vacant; here, swirls in stones and crests of ripping reefs, which served as giant models for the dorsal scales of Stegosaurus. We came upon it after sunset, my son and I, and the glory of it smote us like a vision of Neptune with his bearded hosts. Surely we had stumbled upon a bit of the elder world, reserved by sorcery from the accustomed gaze of man. With bated breath we gazed, until we plucked at our flesh to see if we, too, were turned to stone. And as we gazed, a Redtail, lifting silently from an unseen ledge, winged across the chasm with such confident modernity that the spell broke in laughter. A "Burke's Peerage" of the birds might not mention the Buteos under the head of royalty—Falco and Aquila are the autocrats pa?- excellence— but Redtail's patent of nobility is very ancient, and is based upon the same claims as those which human lords have set up: viz., a predatory ancestry, unbroken possession of certain broad acres for many centuries, and a frowning castle upon some sightly hill. In this last respect the bird is not surpassed, in the Pacific States at least, by that arrogant old Haps- burg, the Prairie Falcon himself. As to the broad acres, chiefly game preserves (to carry out the whimsy), the royal claim comes first (because, forsooth, the Falcon is the swifter bird); and there is always a horde of retainers—Sparrow Hawks, Burrowing Owls, Magpies, and Ravens—to consider, before the overlord may count his yearly rental of ground-squir
Size: 1438px × 1737px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
