Neighbors with wings and fins, and some others; for young people
James Johonnot
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, July 4, 2012)
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 edition. Excerpt: ...the children nodding on their seats, our naturalist concludes by dreamily quoting from John Burroughs: "All the ways of the owl are ways of softness and duskiness. His wings are shod with silence--his plumage is edged with down." CHAPTER XX. POLLY AND HER KIN 1. We have become so well acquainted with polly in her cage, or on her perch, or sitting in the shop-window, that she seems to be one of us, and we seldom think or ask where she came from. We must, therefore, follow the parrot to its home in South America, where we shall find the macaw--the large parrot, with long, tapering tail, and bright red, blue, green, and black colors. There we shall find these birds of exquisite feather more numerous than blackbirds about our swamps. 2. And here, in their native woods, too, these "pollies" keep up an incessant talking and laughing, all in their own language. The great Humboldt, who has told so much about South America, says it is necessary to have lived in the hot valleys of the Andes to believe that "the shrieking of the parrots actually drowns the roar of the mountain torrents." 3. Or we may visit the home of the gray parrot, with its tail of deep red, on the western coast or in the interior of Africa. Here there will be the same jolly, great, happy family, all talking, and perhaps vieing with the monkeys in climbing the trees. In their original home, parrots are clean birds. They rise early in the morning, get their breakfast of fruit or nuts, then take a bath, and return to the trees, where they smooth down their gaudy dresses, and sit and sleep during the hot day. 4. The green parrot learns to talk in the language of men, but not so well as the gray parrot. Indeed, polly is not only a great climber, but it is so...