File:Birds and nature (1907) (14750471855).jpg

Identifier: birdsnature51907chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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he sings a few times from thetop of some tall willow that leans outover the stream, sitting motionlessamong the marsh foliage, fully aware,perhaps, of the protection afforded byhis harmonizing tints. The nextmoment he descends to the coolshadows beneath, where dark, coffee-colored waters, the overflow of a pondor river, stretch back among the trees.Here he loves to hop about the floatingdrift-wood, wet by the lapping of pul-sating wavelets, now following up somelong, inclining, half submerged log,peeping into every crevice and occas-ionally dragging forth from its con-cealment a spider or small beetle, turn-ing alternately its bright yellow breastand olive back towards the light; nowjetting his beautiful tail, or quiveringhis wings tremulously, he darts offinto some thicket in response to a callfrom his mate; or, flying to a neigh-boring tree trunk, clings for a momentagainst the mossy hole to pipe his littlestrain, or look up the exact where-abouts of some suspected insect prize. 42
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inO PhO <u N O 352; « o THE CRAB-EAIING OPPOSSUM. THE crab-eating opossum (Philan-der philander) is one of thelargest of the family. The bodyis nine and one-half inches long,and the tail nearly thirteen inches. Ithas a wide range, extending throughoutall of tropical America. It is numerousin the woods of Brazil, preferring theproximity of swamps, which furnish itwith crabs. It lives almost exclusivelyin trees, and descends to the ground onlywhen it wishes to forage. While it proceeds slowly and awk-wardly on the ground, its prehensile tailenables it to climb trees with some fa-cility. This opossum readily entrapssmaller mammals, reptiles, and insects,and especially crabs, which are its fa-vorite food. It preys upon birds andtheir nests, but it also eats fruit, and issaid to visit poultry yards and to causegreat devastation among chickens andpigeons. The young of the crab-eating opos-sum differ in color from the old animals.They are completely naked at birth, butwhen they are suffi

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