The Structure and Life of Birds |
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air-sacks anemometer angle animals Argus Pheasant artery autumn backward beak bird's blood body bones breast breastbone Bronn's Thier-Reich centre of gravity Chaffinches clavicle cock cock-birds colour coracoid Cuckoo developed Dictionary of Birds doubt downward Duck Eagle eggs embryo fact feathers feet flight flying Gadow Gannet Gulls habits heart Heligoland hen-bird Hoatzin horizontal humerus instinct joint length ligaments lizard look lower lungs machinery male mammals Marey membrane metacarpal migration miles moult move movement muscles Natural Selection nearly neck nest ocellus old birds ornithologist Ostrich pair pass Pigeon pigment plumage plumes prĉaxial probably Professor pterodactyl rapid reptiles rise Sanderling scapula seen side skin small birds soaring sometimes song species spring sternum stroke surface Swallow tail tendon Thrush toes turn ulna upward velocity vertebrĉ weight wind wing winter young birds
Popular passages
Page 168 - Nigh upon that hour When the lone hern forgets his melancholy, Lets down his other leg, and stretching dreams Of goodly supper in the distant pool, Then...
Page 52 - ... have taken some pains to estimate its probable minimum rate of natural increase ; it will be safest to assume that it begins breeding when thirty years old and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth six young in the interval and surviving till one hundred years old; if this be so, after a period of from 740 to 750 years there would be nearly nineteen million elephants alive, descended from the first pair.
Page 314 - ... ordinary life. The fact that they have been developed to so great an extent in a few species is an indication of such perfect adaptation to the conditions of existence, such complete success in the battle for life, that there is, in the adult male at all events, a surplus of strength, vitality, and growth-power, which is able to expend itself in this way without injury.
Page 306 - After remaining for a time inactive, one of the cocks lowers his head, spreads out his wings nearly horizontally, and his tail perpendicularly, distends his air sacs and erects his feathers, then rushes across the floor...
Page 306 - ... his tail, so that he produces a loud rustling noise and thus becomes a really astonishing spectacle. Soon after he commences, all the cocks join in, rattling, stamping, drumming, crowing, and dancing furiously; louder and louder the noise, faster and faster the dance becomes, until at last they madly whirl about, leaping over each other in their excitement.
Page 345 - Trojans marched with clamour and with shouting like unto birds, even as when there goeth up before heaven a clamour of cranes which flee from the coming of winter and sudden rain, and fly with clamour towards the streams of ocean, bearing slaughter and fate to the Pigmy men, and in early morn offer cruel battle.
Page 105 - ... secondary object, since the air cannot be expelled from them at will. Before proceeding to discuss the problems connected with pneumaticity, I will briefly set down the main facts. (i.) Many small birds that are first-rate flyers have either marrow in all the large bones, or else in all except the humerus. (2.) Most of the big strong-flying birds have a great deal of aeration. (3.) The hornbills, which, according to good observers, are very poor flyers, are as pneumatic as any birds, or, perhaps,...
Page 237 - ... an opening, and when the condors are gorged, to gallop up on horseback to the entrance, and thus enclose them; for when this bird has not space to run, it cannot give its body sufficient momentum to rise from the ground.
Page 66 - ... make it so different from its lethargic reptilian ancestors, giving a description of the anatomical structure and physiological action of its chief organs. The following paragraph, from the description of the heart and circulation, will exemplify Mr. Headley's style and method of exposition : — " The heart is a force-pump, which drives the blood to all parts of the body, and when it returns impure and loaded with used-up material, sends it to the lungs to be purified, after which it is despatched...
Page 56 - Hairless dogs have imperfect teeth; long-haired and coarse-haired animals are apt to have, as is asserted, long or many horns; pigeons with feathered feet have skin between their outer toes; pigeons with short beaks have small feet, and those with long beaks large feet. Hence if man goes on selecting, and thus augmenting, any peculiarity, he will almost certainly modify unintentionally other parts of the structure, owing to the mysterious laws of correlation.