. Wild life of orchard and field;. ethat is the spirit of the day; and a sign or tokenof this renewed friendship and good-will is the pres-ent of a snail from one party to the other, or anexchange of mollusks between them. The symbol-ism and virtue reside in the alleged amicable in-fluence of the head and ** horns, to account forwhich some very quaint history and ingenioustheories have been brought forward by the com-parative mythologists. In this country no such fanciful notions haveever gained credence. Our snails are too habitual-ly hidden to attract the attention of any but a few;and, even
. Wild life of orchard and field;. ethat is the spirit of the day; and a sign or tokenof this renewed friendship and good-will is the pres-ent of a snail from one party to the other, or anexchange of mollusks between them. The symbol-ism and virtue reside in the alleged amicable in-fluence of the head and ** horns, to account forwhich some very quaint history and ingenioustheories have been brought forward by the com-parative mythologists. In this country no such fanciful notions haveever gained credence. Our snails are too habitual-ly hidden to attract the attention of any but a few;and, even when their existence is known, they areunfortunately regarded with such a disgust aswould preclude any acceptance of them for eitherfood or medicine. 313 WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD Yet why this disgust? Snails are of ancientrace, vast variety, graceful shape and dignifiedbearing, industrious and peaceful habits, edibleand curative properties: quod erat demonstran-dum! WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD XVIII A FLICKER AND HIS FUN. T length the summers eternity isushered in by the cackle of theflicker among the oaks on the hill-side, and a new dynasty begins withcalm security.—Thoreau. I DO not know any Americanbird that has so many local andpopular names as the flicker,which the books call the gold-en-winged woodpecker.* Thiscomes from his having so manypersonal characteristics that at-tract attention, and from the * Some of these local names areborrowed from Europe—that is, wereapplied to the bird by early colonistsbecause of a real or fancied resem-blance to some bird which they knew WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD fact that he is known all over the continent eastof the Rocky Mountains. He extends his sum-mer travels even to Alaska, and this is rather sur-prising, because he is no great wing-master, but, in the fatherland, and often they involve a great mistake,ornithologically; others have originated here, so far as wecan see. They may be divided into four classes, as re
Size: 960px × 2603px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectanimalb, bookyear1902
