and burial of this hero we have again an omen. Priam, the aged, feeble
man, determined to go to the strange, wrathful Achilles and beg for
the body of his dear son Hector, which the swift-footed hero had been
mutilating in his wrath, dragging it behind his chariot about the city
walls. Priam was determined to go. His wife tried to dissuade him from
such a dangerous undertaking, he bade her not to be a bird of ill omen
in his halls, but she insisted, and finally persuaded him to pray to
Zeus to send him an omen that his journey would be successful. He
prayed; thereupon an Eagle appeared flying at his right. Hecuba was
now satisfied and the old lord of windy Troy started out on his errand
of love. The omen was true this time for he did persuade the heart of
Achilles and returned to his city with the remains of his son.
There are other instances of omens given by the presence and flight of
birds, but these are sufficient to show us the great importance which
the men of two thousand years ago attributed to them. Although birds
are most prominent in Homer in this connection, still we find them
mentioned many times just as parts of the physical world and without
divine import. Among the birds thus mentioned we find names which our
scholars have interpreted to designate Cranes, Meadow Larks, Jackdaws,
Geese, Swans, Nighthawks, Vultures, and Eagles. Birds are especially
noted for their quickness in flight, and the horses were most prized
which flew like the birds. Birds were always mentioned in connection
with the dead, and a favorite curse was to wish that one might be left
a prey to the dogs and birds.
Gods often honored this part of the animal world by assuming their
forms. We find Athene and Apollo in the likeness of Vultures settling
down upon the Oak tree to watch the battle of the Greeks and Trojans.
Sleep watches the wiles of Juno toward her lord while he sits as a
Nighthawk upon a tree. But Homer is essentially a poet, and in many
places a nature-poet, and in these touches of nature he does not forget
the birds, but very often compares the movements of his heroes to them.
"As a tawny Eagle darts upon the flocks of winged birds feeding by the
river, flocks of Geese, of Cranes, of long-necked Swans, so Hector
darted upon them."
"The Trojans went with hue and cry--like the birds when the cry of the
Cranes is in the front of heaven, who, when they flee from the winter
and portentous storms, with cries fly to the streams of Oceanus bearing
death and fate to the Pygmies, and at dawn they bear forth with them
their evil strife."
"As a bird bears a morsel for its unfledged young whenever it obtains
any, but fares badly itself, so I have toiled for other men and gained
naught myself."
"As many flocks of birds, of Geese, Cranes, long-necked Swans, in
an Asian meadow by the banks of the Cayster fly hither and thither
exulting in their wings as they settle down with cries and the meadow
reëchoes, so flocks of men poured from the tents and ships into the
plain of the Scamander."
"As a flock of Meadow Larks or Jackdaws comes with full, unbroken cry
when they see before them a Hawk which bears destruction to small
birds, so with full, unbroken cry went the youths of the Achæans before
Æneas and Hector."
SUMMARY.
Page 206.
=AFRICAN LION=--_Felis leo capensis_.
RANGE--All over central and southern Africa from the western to the
eastern coast, and as far north as the 20th degree of northern latitude.
----
Page 210.
=CACTI=--(1) _Echinocadus Le Contii_, Tempe, Arizona. (2) _Mamillaria
Sheerii_, Nogales, Arizona.
----
Page 214.
=AMERICAN FLYING SQUIRREL=--_Pteromys volucella_.
RANGE--All over the United States and Central America.
----
Page 218.
=HUMMING-BIRDS=--(1) _Lampornis gramineus_, Venezuela. (2) _Petasophora
Anais_, Columbia. (3) White-tailed Hummer.
----
Page 223.
=SILK-WORM=--_Bombyx mori_. Originally from China.
----
Page 227.
=CALIFORNIA VULTURE=--_Pseudogryphus californianus_. Other name:
California Condor.
RANGE--Coast ranges of southern California from Monterey Bay southward
into Lower California; formerly north to Frazer River.
NEST--On the bare floor of a cave in a lofty precipice.
EGG--One.
----
Page 230.
=AMERICAN GOLDEN-EYE=--_Glaucionetta clangula americana_. Other names:
Whistler, Whistle Wing, Brass-eyed Whistler, Great Head, Garrot.
RANGE--North America, nesting from our northern boundaries to the far
south, and wintering in the United States southward to Cuba.
NEST--In hollow trees, lined with grass, leaves, and moss.
EGGS--Six to ten, ashy green in color.
----
Page 233.
=AMERICAN SKUNK=--_Mephitis varians_.
RANGE--Extensive, being most plentiful near Hudson Bay, whence it is
distributed southward.
INDEX.
VOLUME IV.--JULY TO DECEMBER, 1898.
A Bloodless Sportsman, 39
A Book By the Brook, 39
Acorn, Thirty Miles for an, 29
African Folk Lore, 12
Ah Me!, 113
Alaska, Birds of, 95
All Nature, 37
Almond, Flowering (_Amygdalus communis_), 193-5
Animals and Music, 159
Animals' Rights, 225
Animals, Some Propensities of, 81
Animals, Talk of, 140
Animals and Water, 84
Animal World, In the, 136
Antelope, The Pigmy (_Antilope pigmea_), 94-95
Apple Blossoms, 36
Armadillo as a Pet, 12
Armadillo (_Tatusia novemcincta_), 146-7
Autumn, 132
Azamet, the Hermit, and His Dumb Friends, 33
Bat, Black (_Scotophilus carolinensis_)}, 170-1
Bat, Red (_Atalapha noveboracensis_) }, 170-1
Bats, Tame, 168
Birds, 163
Bird, A Little, 162
Bird Courtship, 164
Birds Foretell Marriage, 16
Birds in the Garden and Orchard, 153
Birds in the Iliad, 234
Birds Mentioned in the Bible, 48
Bird of Paradise, The King (_Cincinnurus regius_), 124-7
Birds, Sleeping Places of, 164
Birds and Animals of the Philippines, 48
Birds, Reasoning Powers of, 43
Birds in Storms, 163
Bobolink's Song, 61
Butterfly, The, 142
Butterflies, 102
Butterflies (illustrations), 23, 63, 103, 143, 183, 223
Butterflies, How Protected, 62
Butterfly Trade, 22
Butterflies Love to Drink, 182
Cactus (_Echinocadus le Contii_) (_Mamillaria Sheerii_), 210-11
Christmas Trees, 220
Color Photographs and Conversation Lessons, 194
Constantinople, From, 158
Count? Can Animals, 180
Country, A Gameless, 229
Dolphin, The Bottlenose (_Tursiops tursio_), 134-5
Doves of Venice, 100
Ears, 121
Eyes, 117
Farewell, The Turkey's, 162
Fern, The Petrified, 83
Flowers, The Death of the, 189
Flowers, The Use of, 34
Fox, The American Gray (_Vulpes virginianus_), 105-7
Fox, The Red (_Vulpes fulvus_), 66-9
Golden-eye, American (_Glaucionetta clangula americana_), 230-1
Golden-rod (_Solidago Virga-aurea_), 154-5
Grouse, Prairie Sharp-tailed (_Pediocætes phasianellus campestris_),
166-167
Gull, Herring (_Larus argentatus Smithsonianus_), 86-7
Hawk, Red-shouldered (_Buteo lineatus_), 96-9
Hen, Prairie (_Tympanucus americanus_), 18-19
Humming-birds (1 _Lampornis gramineus_) (2 _Pelasophora anais_)
(3 _White-tailed_), 216-19
Instinct and Reason, 73
Lion, African (_Felis leo_), 206-7
Loon, The (_Urinator imber_), 58-9
Midsummer, 65
Miscellany, 109
Mocking-birds at Tampa, Florida, 61
Myths and the Mistletoe, 212
Nature's Adjustments, 41
Nature's Grotesque, 149
Nature Study and Nature's Rights, 176
Nature, The Voice of, 136
Nature's Orchestra, 161
Ocelot, The (_Felis pardalis_), 30-1
October, 157
Otter, American (_Lutra canadensis_), 172-5
Peccary (_Dicotyles torquatus_), 128-31
Pet, A Household, 52
Pigeon, The Passenger, 25
Plover, The Golden (_Charadrius dominicus_), 178-9
Porcupine, Canadian (_Erethizon dorsatus_), 186-7
Puffin, The Tufted (_Lunda cirrhata_), 138-9
Rabbit, The American (_Lepus sylvaticus_), 26-7
Raccoon, American (_Procyon lotor_), 90-1
Red Head (_Aythya americana_), 150-1
Sandpiper, The Least (_Tringa minutilla_), 70-1
Sandpiper, The Pectoral (_Tringa maculata_), 114-15
Secrets of an Old Garden, 16
Seminary for Teaching Birds How to Sing, 78
Sheep, Mountain (_Ovis montana_), 74-5
Silk Worm, The (_Bombyx mori_), 222-3
Skunk, American (_Mephitis varians_), 233
Skylark, The, 176
Snipe, Wilson's (_Gallinago delicata_), 6-7
Snowflakes, 229
Songsters, About the, 21
Sparrow, New Champion for, 135
Squirrels, Flying (_Pteromys volucella_), 214-15
Squirrel, Fox (_Sciurus cinereus_), 54-6
Squirrel, American Gray (_Sciurus carolinensis_), 110-11
Squirrel, The Hunted, 119
Squirrel, Red (_Sciurus hudsonius_), 14-15
Squirrel Road, The, 44
Squirrel Town, 4
Summary, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200, 238
Symbol, A, 208
Tern, Caspian (_Sterna tschograva_), 190-1
Tern, The Common (_Sterna hirundo_), 46-7
Useful Birds of Prey, 88
Voices, 201
Vulture, California (_Pseudogryphus californianus_), 226-7
Walk, A Winter's, 221
Wild Birds in London, 92
Wolf, Black (_Canis occidentalis_), 8-11
Wolf, Prairie (_Canis latrans_), 50-1
Wren, The Envious, 185
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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Page 204: "glottides" changed to "glottises." |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| The American Golden-Eye illustration has been moved from page |
| 231 to page 230 and the Skunk illustration from page 235 to |
| page 233. |
| |
| Duplicated section headings have been omitted. |
| |
| Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, |
| _like this_. Words in bold characters are surrounded by equal |
| signs, =like this=. |
| |
| The Contents table was added by the transcriber. |
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