. The bird . te, born with sharp teeth, with formidableapparatus, and ingenious machines of destruction. Powerless againstthe irruption of an unexpected host which crawled, stirred, ascended,penetrated, had almost eaten up ourselves, we contended with themthrough the agency of some brave and voracious fowls, which nevercounted their enemies, and did not criticise, but swallowed Breton and Vendean fowls, inspired with the genius of their 218 THE BIKD country, made their campaign so much the more successfully, becauseeach waged war in its o^vm manner. The hlacl, the gray, and theegg-l
. The bird . te, born with sharp teeth, with formidableapparatus, and ingenious machines of destruction. Powerless againstthe irruption of an unexpected host which crawled, stirred, ascended,penetrated, had almost eaten up ourselves, we contended with themthrough the agency of some brave and voracious fowls, which nevercounted their enemies, and did not criticise, but swallowed Breton and Vendean fowls, inspired with the genius of their 218 THE BIKD country, made their campaign so much the more successfully, becauseeach waged war in its o^vm manner. The hlacl, the gray, and theegg-layer (such were their military titles), marched together in closearray, and recoiled not a step ; the dreamer or pldlosopher preferredskirmishing by himself (chouanner), and accomplished much morework. A superb black cat, the companion of their solitude, studieddaily the track of the field mouse and the lizard, hunted the wasp,devoured the Spanish fly, always at some distance in advance ofthe respectful -»-^^;—tj.~-;^ One word more in reference to them, and one regTet. Our businessbeing finished, we prepared for our departure. But what would becomeof them ? Given to a friend, they would assuredh^ be eaten. Wedeliberated long. Then, coming to a vigorous decision, according tothe ancient creed of savage tribes, who believed that it was sweetestto die by the hands of those we love, and thought that by eatingtheir heroes they themselves became heroic, we made of them, notwithout lamentation, a funereal banquet. It is a tnily grand spectacle to see descend—one might almost sayfrom heaven — against this fiughtful swarming of the universalmonster-birth which awakens in the spring, hissing, whirring, croak-ing, buzzing, in its huge hunger, the universal saviour, in a hundred AS THE LABOURER OF MAN. 219 forms and a hundred legions, differing in arms and character, butall endowed with wings, all sharing a seeming privilege of ubi-quity. To the universal presence of the inse
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidbird00mi, booksubjectbirds
