Quotes: Birds.

The bold-face print is either an interpretation of the quote that follows or the quote itself without interpretation.

Birds
Birds 830 A crow is dressed gravely in black, but he is not religious, rather a thief and probably an infidel too. "A crow, however, has no real pretensions to religion, in spite of his gravity of mien and black attire; he is certainly a thief, and probably an infidel." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 "Their [the birds’] little bodies are as busy as their voices; they are in constant flutter and restlessness." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 Blackbirds congregate in tree-tops and make noises like a turbulent political meeting. "The black birds…are the noisiest of all our feathered citizens…congregate in contiguous tree-tops and vociferate with all the clamor and confusion of a turbulent political meeting." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 831 "We hear them [the birds] saying their melodious prayers, at morning’s blush and eventide." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Birds 47 "The barred owl…usually utters a nine-note series of hoots that has been aptly put into the words, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 10 "Maybe the blue jays don’t migrate to Georgia and points south because they know how handsome they are against a snowy background." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 10 "…the jay often looks like a fat, pompous alderman." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 14 "And the great horned owl hoots gruffly, then hunts on broad, silent wings, sharp-taloned as the wind, quiet as the brittle cold." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 15 [January]. "The blue jays look more cleanly blue and white now than at any other time of the year, and the cardinals are spectacular." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 17 "…the sight of a cardinal against a snowy landscape is spectacular." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 23 "The owl is, in man’s terms, a useful but not a lovable bird." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 23 The owl is a winter night's bird. "[The owl] is a bird of the cold winter night, and if its voice makes the moon-shadows quiver, that too is part of winter." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 40 "He [the jay] insists on eating alone, threatening sparrow, chickadee, and titmouse with baleful eye and rapier beak." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 45 "And his [the cardinal’s] whistle is like nothing else in birddom." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 49 "The chickadee has a scientific name twice as big as he is, parus atricapillus…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 50 "All birds live at high speed physiologically… [the chickadee’s] tiny heart beats 500 times a minute when he is asleep and doubles that rate when he is awake and active." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 50 "The chickadee…a mere fleck of feathered life…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 63 "Crows have no song, but their calls are less raucous and less defiant now as they watch the weather in the naked treetops." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 65 Migrant robins can tell by the average day-long temperature when to return north. "…migrant robins…have an uncanny temperature sense, almost never appearing before the average twenty-four-hour temperature is at least thirty-five degrees." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 73 "Birds obviously sometimes sing merely because they feel like singing." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 83 March. "A cardinal…whistles imperiously…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 83 March. "Four black ducks skim the naked tree tops, wings swiftly beating, necks outstretched, silent as shadows." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "The geese are on the wing…like small dogs yelping in the far distance…a penciled V against the sky…gabbling in the dusk." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "The wild goose…is the epitome of wanderlust, limitless horizons, and distant travel." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 93 April. "…every spring when the wild geese come gabbling north again." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 95 April. "[Migrating robins] can easily fly 250 miles south in a day, find more hospitable weather and wait out the storm." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 101 April. "A flock of grackles is an offense to the ear…likened…to…a fleet of squeaky wheel barrows…rusty gate hinges, thousands of rusty gate hinges." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 101 "The very name “grackle” goes back in origin to European words meaning 'croak' and 'garrulous.' ” Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 103 We know how birds migrate but not why. "We now know far more about [migration] than ever before, but most of our knowledge is about how rather than why, the way birds migrate rather than their reasons." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 127 "[The thrasher]…will spend hours in a tall treetop proclaiming the goodness of life." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 136 "Soon after first light the birds begin to celebrate the dawn, and those who would know birdsong at its best are awake and listening." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 138 "Birds…cramming their crops with insect fare, doing a better job of protecting plants from insect pests than any pesticide every invented." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 141 Birds have personalities. "The robin is sedate, the oriole is a serious fellow, the blue jay is a blustering egocentric…the catbird is a quick-witted entertainer who seems to find life a vastly amusing enterprise." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 The barn swallow and the poetry of flight. "For sheer poetry of flight the barn swallow unquestionably deserves the laurel…a kind of lyric flight that makes one understand the meaning of exquisite grace." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 "But they [chimney swifts] fairly twinkle in flight, swooping, dodging, racing…they often chitter as they fly, almost as though laughing at their astonishing performance." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 Chimney swifts seem to be discovering flight for the first time. "[Chimney swifts]…make flight seem like a fresh discovery, a talent never before known." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 144 Chimney swifts improvise as they fly. "You can predict the patterns of swallows, like a perfect ballet; but the swifts improvise from moment to moment as though too exuberant to be confined by patterns…exultant, practically jubilant at being alive and a-wing…celebrate the miracle of flight." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 Birdsong is best heard in the morning and evening, not during the heat of day. "The chorus of birdsong diminishes, as always when hot days come, though it still is heard in the cool of morning and evening." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A brown thrasher feeds its nestlings as many as 6,000 insects a day." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A pair of barn swallows catches and feeds 1,000 leaf hoppers to its young in one day." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A house wren feeds 500 spiders and small caterpillars to her nestful in one afternoon." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A Baltimore oriole takes as many as 100 caterpillars to her woven pouch of a nest in one hour." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "A yellow-shafted flicker will dispose of 5,000 ants between noon and sundown." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 166 "English sparrows eat Japanese beetles by the thousand and feed as many more to their young." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 174 Hummingbirds. "[The ruby-throated hummingbird]…not much bigger than a bumble bee, its nest half the size of a walnut shell, its eggs…no bigger than fat garden peas…lives on nectar and miniature insects…its annual migration to Mexico…crosses the Gulf of Mexico, flying some 500 miles nonstop." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 201 "…remote, sad call of a mourning dove." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 234 August. "The swallows gave up on the weather several weeks ago, held their conference on rural telephone lines and headed south." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 255 September. "…the flickers are flocking." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 281 "…the wild goose seems to typify the restless spirit of autumn." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 281 "…the garrulousness of geese…in the air or on the water, it chatters and gabbles, gossips and confers." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

51. Birds 281 October. The flight and landing of the geese. "Geese…you hear the distant clamor…seems to echo from the whole sky…you look up, searching, and at last you see the penciled V, high against the blue, arrowing southward…like the distant yapping of small dogs…coming in over a hilltop, a dark cloud to them, to circle once and then drop, long necks outstretched, wings cupped, feet outthrust, to land in a rush of spray." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 294 October. Crow conventions. "The crows attend to the big, important matters such as crow conventions and long, loud discussions…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 295 The strutting jay. "[The jay] can strut sitting still." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 339 "...birds are independence itself." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 346 The nuthatch. "Of all the winter birds the clown of the lot is the nuthatch...doesn’t know that a bird can’t go down a tree trunk head-first...no variation, nothing approaching a melody: just “yark, yark, yark,” always in the same key, always the same note...not quarrelsome, or noisy, or pilfering...a good neighbor, and a welcome winter guest, and he eats his full share of noxious bugs the year round." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 352 December. "On a cold day, a chickadee needs its own weight in food to keep the inner fires burning." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Birds 352 Chickadee. "...this bird is more than the sum of its anatomical parts...a lively spark of personality...can be a ham actor, a bully, a wheedler, and acrobat...loves a human audience and comes to the dooryard feeder as much for companionship as for a snack...an entertainer, it is all pro, the feathered song-and-dance performer who gets, and deserves, top billing on the winter circuit of the dooryard feeders." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year