United States or Wallis and Futuna ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"That's the greenest woodpecker and the reddest head I have seen this season," said the boy thoughtfully. "That's a fine old cock-bird, and no mistake. Well, green woodpeckers aren't trout, and he wouldn't take my fly if I dropped it near him, and I don't want him to. Now, then, what do you say to a try here?"
It is a fallacy, for the songster is always the cock-bird. Not so the eagle, &c. The general statement in these lines is that Albion wails for the death of Keats more melodiously than the nightingale mourning for her lost mate, and more passionately than the eagle robbed of her young.
This it resembles in many respects, and among others, in its habit of going a-foot, except when the covey crosses from one feeding or roosting ground to another, or when the cock-bird mounts upon a rail-fence or stone-wall to sound his call in the spring.
Another instance is related where a clerk, in Wiltshire, found a robin's nest, containing two eggs, under the Bible on the reading desk. The bird was not disturbed, and laid four more, which were hatched in due season. The cock-bird actually brought food in its bill and fed the young brood during Divine service.
"I daresay the cock-bird is not far off," observed Hans, riding up to the nest, which was merely a slight hollow scraped in the sandy soil, and contained a dozen eggs. "He is a gallant bird; guards his wife most faithfully, and shares her duties." "I've sometimes thought," said Considine musingly, "that the ostrich might be tamed and bred on your farms.
The birds flocked to pick up the grain, and a cock-bird fell into the net, whereupon the others took fright and flew away, and amongst the rest his mate; but, after awhile, she returned alone and picked at the mesh that held his feet, till she set him free and they flew away together.
Word Of The Day