The Folk Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 Excerpt: ...dove had returned with the olive leaf, and then the ark, driven hither and thither by the storm, had grounded on Mount Ararat, and Noah had broken it up, intending to build a house out of the materials with which it was constructed. Whereupon the blue bird, seeing nothing, uttered shrill cries, calling for her master, but all in vain. And so, even to this day, you may see her flying along the river banks and looking for the ark or for some of its remains; so too. even to this day, you may see, reflected in her upper plumage, the azure of the celestial blue, while her breast still flames with fiery red from her imprudence in approsching the sun. Giraldus Camorensis gives us some strange information about the kingfisher, which he calls the martinet, in his "Topography of Ireland" (ed. Wright, p. 39)--It is remarkable in these little birds that, if they are preserved in a dry place when dead, they never decay; and if they are put among clothes and other articles, they preserve them from the moth and give them a pleasant odour. What is still more wonderful--if, when dead, they are hung up by their beaks in a dry situation, they change their plumage every year, as if they were restored to life, as though the vital spark still survived and vegetated through some mysterious remains of its energy." To the kingfisher was ascribed by the ancients the power of enriching its possessor, of preserving peace and harmony in families, and imparting to the lady who wore its feathers additional grace and loveliness. The Ojibway Indians give the following reason for the white mark on the kingfisher's breast, and the tuft of feathers on its head. "They say that Manabozho, their supreme deity, once gave it a white sort of medal for useful information, and tha...