File:The British bird book (1921) (14753233604).jpg

Identifier: cu31924022566420 (find matches)
Title: The British bird book
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Wood, Theodore, 1862- Pycraft, W. P., (William Plane), b. 1868 Green, Roland, 1895-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London : A. & C. Black
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ers. Henceforth his flightis easy and graceful enough. This is the bird which was somuch prized in the old days of hawking. The inventionof the gun ended this most fascinating form of sport. Let us turn now, for a little whUe, from moor and woodand fen, to the seashore, and, for choice, to a rock-boundcoast with towering chffs. Here you will find a number ofspecies which wUl never be found inland. They love thesea, whether it be shimmering in the sim of a blazing Juneday, smooth as a mUl-pond, or in a fury of thundering biUows,lashed by a roaring gale in bleak December. The bottle-green shag is one of these. You cannot mistake him.Perched on a rock he sits upright, and, in the spring, wears acrest upon his head. On the water he floats with the bodywell down, and every few moments disappears with a springinto the depths, for his never-ending meal of fish and crabs.His flight, just above the water, is strong and rapid. Hiscousin, the cormorant, is a conspicuously larger bird, with a 338
Text Appearing After Image:
/. Partridge. 2. Gannet. 3. Whitethroat, 4. Red-Backed Shrike. 5. Magpie. 6. Goldfinch. 7. Great Crated Grd>e. 8. Buzzard. 9. Puffin. 10. Grey Wagtail. bronze-coloured plumage. In the breeding season his headhas a hoary appearance, due to the presence of numerousfilamentous feathers, known as filoplumes ; while thethroat is white, and there is a large white patch on the thigh.He has a habit, after a fuU meal, of sitting on some con-venient perch with wings spread wide open and open-mouthed, apparently as an aid to digestion. But he is byno means so wedded to the sea as the shag. Rivers andinland waters will serve him as well as the sea. The gannet, though very nearly related to the cormorant,is a bird of very different habits and appearance. Whenadult it is snow-white in plumage, with blue beak and feet,and can be mistaken for no other bird. Its peculiar mode offishing was described in Chapter II. Finally, there are two most interesting features of thesebirds which are worth rememb

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