The Minstrelsy of the Woods, Or, Sketches and Songs Connected with the Natural History of Some of the Most Interesting British and Foreign Birds |
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ACCIPITRES amid amusing beautiful Bewick birds of prey black stork bright bullfinch cage capercaile captive chase cheer colour Common Sandpiper cries cuckoo Cuvier Dartford Warbler delight dwell eagle earth eggs falcon falconry favourite feathers feed female fern-owl flies flight flowers follow forest gentle goat-sucker green green woodpecker grove habits hatched hath haunts hear heard insects JAVA SPARROW little bird little creatures mate morning Motacilla mountain naturalist nature nest never night nightingale notes nuthatch o'er observed ORDER PASSERES ornithologists peculiar petrel plaintive pleasant plumage ptarmigan race raven rest rock round season seems seen Selborne sing singular soft song sound sparrow species spot spring stork stormy stormy petrel strains summer swallow sweet thee thou thrush tree tribe voice wanderer watch waters wave whip-poor-will white stork wild wind wing winter woodlarks woodpecker woods wren YELLOW WAGTAIL young
Popular passages
Page 11 - She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.
Page 200 - Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.
Page 139 - The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
Page 56 - But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, " Lord, what music hast thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou...
Page 141 - And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening ; and he drank of the brook.
Page 160 - But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began : The winds, with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kist, 'Whispering new joys to the mild ocean— Who now hath quite forgot to rave, While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
Page 15 - Strong pounc'd, and ardent with paternal fire. Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own, He drives them from his fort, the towering seat. For ages, of his empire ; which, in peace, Unstain'd...
Page 114 - These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Page 98 - ... idea of the moaning of the largest goatsucker in Demerara. Four other species of the goatsucker articulate some words so distinctly, that they have received their names from the sentences they utter, and absolutely bewilder the stranger on his arrival in these parts. The most common one sits down close by your door, and flies, and alights three or four yards before you, as you walk along the road, crying, " Who-are-you, whowho-who-are-you." Another bids you, " Workaway, work-work-work-away.
Page 92 - The notes of this solitary bird, from the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem like the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost all with great interest. At first they issue from some retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden fence, the road before the door, and even from the roof of the dwelling-house, long after the family have retired to rest.