Figuier, Louis. Reptiles and Birds: A Popular Account of Their Various Orders, With a Description of the Habits and Economy of the Most Interesting. Revised by Parker Gillmore ("Ubique"). With 308 Illustrations. (London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., 1892).
"Placed side by side," says Professor Huxley, "a humming-bird and a tortoise, or an ostrich and a crocodile, offer the strongest contrast; and a stork seems to have little but its animality in common with the snake which it swallows." Nevertheless, unlike as they are in outward appearance, there is sufficient resemblance in their internal economy to bring them together in classifying the animal kingdom. [from the Introductory Chapter]
Reptiles and Birds features 308 engraved illustrations and I had some difficulty in limiting the number of choices for this post. I admit to being attracted to the beauty of the birds more strongly than to the strangeness of the reptiles. Below are pictured the Surinam Toad (Pipa monstrosa) bearing live young from pores on its back, followed by the Ring Snake (Natrix torquatas)
Here are a selection of my favorite bird illustrations: the Hawk Owl or Canada Owl (Surnia ulula), the Gray Parrot or Jaco (Psittacus erythacus), and the King Vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa).
The section which made the deepest impression on me is the following passage from "EXTINCT BREVIPENNES."
For more Reptiles and Birds, you can visit the Internet Archive.
The section which made the deepest impression on me is the following passage from "EXTINCT BREVIPENNES."
The order of the Brevipennes may be held to embrace some birds which have now disappeared from the surface of the globe, but which are supposed to be contemporaneous with man. The remains which are met with in quite modern alluvium scarcely admit of any doubt in this respect. In the first rank of extinct birds we may place the Dodo (Didus ineptus), which was indigenous to the Mauritius and the Isle of France, where it used to be abundant, if we may believe the testimony of the companions of Vasco de Gama, who visited there in 1497. At the end of the seventeenth century some of them still existed. Former travellers have described them; and these accounts, with skeletons and an oil painting in the British Museum, are the only information which we possess regarding them.
The Dodo was a fat and heavy bird, and weighed not less than fifty pounds. Its portly body was supported on short legs, provided with ridiculously small wings, making it equally incapable of running or flying, thus dooming the bird to rapid destruction. Lastly and principally, it had a stupid physiognomy, but little calculated to conciliate the sympathies of the observer. . . The Dodo did not even possess the merit of being useful after death, for its flesh was disagreeable and of a bad flavor. On the whole there is not much to regret its extinction. [pp. 367-368.]The endangered Kiwi Bird of New Zealand has to this day managed to avoid extinction despite the fact that it was described by Figuier as being "rare."
Kiwi-Kiwi or Apteryx (Apteryx australis) . . . has no tail, and its mere stumps of wings are provided with strong and curved claws. It is a native of New Zealand, and keeps in the marshes where it feeds on worms and grubs. Being nocturnal, it is seldom seen. In spite of its short legs it runs very fast, and if overtaken, does not yield wihout an effort, using its feet, which are armed with long and sharp claws, as weapons of defense.
The natives call the bird Kiwi. They used at one time to hunt them very perserveringly, as much for their flesh as for their feathers, which they used in making mats. Now they have renounced this work, for the profits not compensating for the fatigue which is entailed. Day by day it is becoming more rare. It is curious that cxtinction should be the fate of most of the native New Zealand birds. [pp. 364; 367]
And, in closing, here are a few bird nest dots which bring to mind the lovely little reproductions found in dictionaries:
