File:Birds of the wave and woodland. Illustrated by Charles Whymper and others (1894) (14563607247).jpg

Identifier: birdsofwavewoodl00robi (find matches)
Title: Birds of the wave and woodland. Illustrated by Charles Whymper and others
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Robinson, Philip Stewart, 1894-1902 Whymper, Charles, b. 1853
Subjects: Birds Birds in literature
Publisher: London, Isbister
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
rough traveller passing through^ Faber. Above all, there was the moorhen, a bird that one cansurely never be tired of watching, it is so full of quipsand cranks. It has a little red wafer on its nose andqueer little patches of white under its tail, which it keepson flicking as it goes in a comical automatic sort of way,in time with its steps, as if its tail were a kind of pedometermeasuring off the distances it walks. /\nd when it is in thewater swimming, it jerks its head backwards and forwards,as if doing so helped it along and it could not help jerkingevery time it kicked out its legs. And when it is in thewater, how it bobs about ! You can never depend upon itfor an instant, going in the direction it started for ; some- BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 207 thing or other is sure to attractits attention, especially if it has itsbrood behind it, and its mate ison the watch, makinof a oreat showof vigilance and unnecessarysagacity. The young ones—tryingto follow the mothers movements
Text Appearing After Image:
THE WATER HEN as she darts at a flyhere, pecks at some-thing there, suddenlystands on her head 2c8 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND to fetch something up from down below, or makes an unex-pected dash at an insect that is skimming across to the reeds—twist and wind about and get in each others way, Hke asquad of badly-managed boats, that keep on fouling andramming one another, and all the time keep up a feeblelittle chorus of disconsolate cheep-cheep. But they arelearninir their lessons all the time, and it is delightful towatch their imitations. They gape at the passing tlies,make sudden little excursions, three inches at a time, aftersomething they think they see, and ridiculously attempt todive, as they notice their mother do. But they are so lightand so weak that the resistance of the water is too much forthem, and all they can do is to put their heads under water andkick in the air with their legs, exactly like little boys tryingto turn somersaults on the grass, but only getting h

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