Abstract
A VERY pretty book for a drawing-room table. The description of the several families of both reptiles and birds is filled with anecdotes culled from all sorts of writers, some of them sufficiently amusing, others, to say the least, of doubtful accuracy; witness the following in reference to the stork:ββThe inhabitants of Smyrna, who know how far the males carry their feelings of conjugal honour, make these birds the subject of rather a cruel amusement. They divert themselves by placing hen's eggs in the nest of the stork. At the sight of this unusual production the male allows a terrible suspicion to gnaw his heart. By the help of his imagination he soon persuades himself that his mate has betrayed him; in spite of the protestations of the poor thing he delivers her over to the other storks who are drawn together by his cries, and the innocent and unfortunate victim is pecked to pieces.β We should like to see this cruel amusement played out once to the bitter end, and should then, but not till then, believe it.
Reptiles and Birds. A Popular Account of their various Orders, with a Description of the Habits and Economy of the most interesting.
By Louis Figuier. Illustrated with 307 woodcuts. Edited and adapted by Parker Gillmore. 1870. (London: Chapman and Hall.)
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Reptiles and Birds. A Popular Account of their various Orders, with a Description of the Habits and Economy of the most interesting. Nature 1, 531 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001531a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001531a0