Notes on Birds [Signed S.B.] (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. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ... tion with one of the porters about them. On my saying I supposed that the boys robbed a good many of the nests, --he answered " Oh Sir, they would if they were allowed, but the birds are such good friends to us, that we won't let any body meddle with them." I fancied at first that he spoke of them as friends, in the way of company only, but he explained his meaning to be, that the flies about the station would be quite intolerable if they were not cleaned off by the Martins, which are always hawking up and down in front of it, adding, that even during the few hot days which occurred in spring before their arrival, the flies were very troublesome. "Now," he said, ' we may now and then see one, but that is all." The Eagle Owl is rarely met with in Great Britain; it builds its nest in the caverns or rocks, in mountainous and almost inaccessible places. The nest, which is nearly three feet in diameter, is built of sticks, bound together with fibrous roots and lined with leaves. The bird lays two eggs somewhat larger than those of the hen, and mottled like itself with brown, yellow, and black; it feeds upon hares, rabbits, rats, mice, and reptiles of various kinds. Stanley mentions, in his History of Birds, a proof of their voracity, witnessed by a Swedish gentleman, who resided several years on a farm, near a steep mountain, on the summit of which a pair of Eagle Owls had built their nests. One day, in the month of July, a young bird having quitted the nest, was caught by the servants. The bird was, considering the season of the year, well feathered, but the down appeared here and there between those feathers which had not yet attained their full growth; after it was caught, it was shut in a large hen coop; to his surprise on the following morning, a...