Reptiles and Birds A Popular Account of Their Various Orders, With a Description of the Habits and Economy of the Most Interesting

The Raptores enjoy a greater amount of public notoriety than almost any other birds, although they are of little or no service to us, and possess infinitely fewer claims to our...

The most striking characteristic of the Waders consists in the nakedness and length of their tarsi, which sometimes attain to really extraordinary dimensions: some of these bird...

The Passerines (from _passer_, the Latin name for Sparrow) form the least natural group of the class Aves. Here one seeks in vain for the homogeneous characteristics which disti...

Willoughby distributes the Palmipedes into such as have the back toe, and those in which it is absent; the former, again, into such as have the four toes webbed together, and su...

Reptiles are, as has been said in the preceding chapter, Vertebrated Animals, breathing by lungs, having red and cold blood; that is to say, not producing sufficient heat to ren...

This is the second order of the great section of Scaly Reptiles (_Squamata_), as distinguished from the Shielded Reptiles (_Cataphracta_). The name Saurian, +Sauros+, given by A...

["The body," as described by Dr. Gray, "is covered with square imbedded plates, generally forming a dorsal and ventral shield united by their margins, leaving only the head, nec...

The GALLINACEÆ are essentially land birds, seeking their food on the surface of the soil, and frequently building their nests upon it. They delight in scratching the earth, and...

Those geographers who divide the world into land and sea overlook in their nomenclature the extensive geographical areas which belong permanently to neither section--namely, the...

People will be strangely mistaken if they imagine that all the birds which rank in this order possess the faculty of climbing. In reality it is only the privilege of some, and d...

The Natatores are obviously devoted, by their organisation, to an aquatic life. Their constant haunts are found on the great rivers and lakes, or on the coast. They are chiefly...

"Notwithstanding the dissimilarity of the bill," says Mr. Vigors (_Linn. Trans._, vol. xiv.), "the Sterna and Rhynchops most intimately accord in habits and external characters....

_Nocturnal_: Horned Owls 576 Great 576 Virginian 579 Short-eared 579 Ketupu 581 Scops 581 Hornless Owls 583 Sparrow 583 Small Sparrow 584 Pampas Sparrow 584 Burrowing 585 Tawny...

_Syndactyles_: Hornbills 482 Rhinoceros 483 Fly-catchers 483 King-fishers 484 Ceyx Meninting 486 Bee-eaters 486 Common 488 Momots 487 _Tenuirostres_: Hoopoes 488 Epimachus 490 P...

Habits, origin, &c. 399 _Tetraonidæ_: Capercailzie 401 Grouse, Black 402 Pinnated 402 Ruffed 403 Cock of the Plains 402 Gelinotte 403 Ptarmigans 404 Common 404 Red Grouse 405 _P...

_Palmidactyles_: Flamingo 317 Avocet 320 Stilt Bird 321 _Macrodactyles_: Water Hens 322 Common 323 Purple, or Sultana Fowl 324 Rails 325 Coots 326 Bald 328 Crested 328 Blue 328...

Tern 299 Little 301 Noddy 302 Silver-winged 302 Arctic 302 Whiskered 303 Gull-billed 303 Roseate 303 Sandwich 303 Caspian 303 Scissors-bills 303 Black 304 Gulls 304 Large White-...

Snakes 38 Burrowing 42 Ground 43 Tree 43 Fresh-water 43 Sea 43 Innocuous 46 Blind 46 Shield-tail 47 Black 49 Rat 49 Ringed 49 Green and Yellow 52 Viperine 52 Desert 53 Whip 54 B...

Formation 155 Distribution and Classification 157 Tortoises 158 Land 158 Margined 159 Moorish 159 Greek 160 Elephantine 160 Genus Pyxis 161 Ditto Kinixys 161 Homopodes 161 _Elod...

Mallard 232 Golden-eyed Garrot 242 Poachard 243 Shoveller 244 Shieldrake 246 Eider Duck 247 Common Teal 250 Velvet Duck 253 Scoter, Black 253 Great-billed 258 Goosander 259 Smew...

Structural Distinctions 8 Intelligence 13 Characteristics 15 Historical Antiquity 18 Distribution 19 Frogs 19 Habits of Life 21 Development of Young 22 Green 23 Common 23 Green...

Parrots 457 Macaw 464 Parrakeets 465 Tabuan 465 Parrot, Grey 466 Green 466 Cockatoos 466 Toucans 467 Proper 468 Aracaris 469 Cuckoos 469 Grey 469 Indicators 472 Anis 473 Barbets...

Lizards, Distribution and Division 99 Grey 109 Green 110 Ocellated 110 Ameivas 112 Iguanas 117 Basilisk 127 Anoles 129 Flying 132 Gecko 134 Chameleons 136 Crocodiles 141 Jacares...