. The bird. Birds. AS THE LABOURER OF MAX. 219 forms and a hundred legions, differing in arms and character, but all endowed with wings, all sharing a seeming privilege of ubi- quity. To the universal presence of the insect, to its ubiquity of numbers, responds that of the bird, of his swiftness, of his wing. The gi-eat moment is that when the insect, developing itself through the heat,. 4 / V' hv 7^.^i/ ATT ^ ^-'l '"J^'^vi V meets the bird face to face; the bird multiplied in numbers ; the bird which, having no milk, must feed at this very moment a numerous family with her living prey. E
. The bird. Birds. AS THE LABOURER OF MAX. 219 forms and a hundred legions, differing in arms and character, but all endowed with wings, all sharing a seeming privilege of ubi- quity. To the universal presence of the insect, to its ubiquity of numbers, responds that of the bird, of his swiftness, of his wing. The gi-eat moment is that when the insect, developing itself through the heat,. 4 / V' hv 7^.^i/ ATT ^ ^-'l '"J^'^vi V meets the bird face to face; the bird multiplied in numbers ; the bird which, having no milk, must feed at this very moment a numerous family with her living prey. Every year the world would be en- dangered if the bird could suckle, if its aliment were the work of an individual, of a stomach. But see, the noisy, restless brood, by ten, twenty, or thirty little bills, cry out for their prey; and the exigency is so great, such the maternal ardour to respond to this demand, that the desperate tomtit, unable to satisfy its score of children mth three hundred catei'pillars a day, will even invade the nests of other birds and pick out the brains of their young. From our windows, which opened on the Luxemburg, we observed every winter the commencement of this useful war of the bird against the insect. We saw it in December inaugurate the year's labour. The honest and respectable household of the thinish, which one might call the leaf-lifter {tourne-feuilles), did their work by couples; when the sunshine followed rain, they visited the pools, and Ufted the. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Michelet, Jules, 1798-1874; Giacomelli, Hector, 1822-1904. London ; New York : T. Nelson
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Keywords: ., bookauthormich, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbirds
