| Author |
Rand, Austin Loomer, 1905-1982 |
| LoC No. |
55005254
|
| Title |
Stray Feathers From a Bird Man's Desk
|
| Note |
Reading ease score: 67.8 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
|
| Contents |
Introduction -- Birds using tools -- Birds as brigands -- Birds bathing -- How birds anoint their feathers -- Traveling birds' nests -- Maladaptation in birds -- Feathered baby sitters and co-op nursery nests -- Birds' nests and their soup -- Walled wives of hornbills -- Buried eggs and young -- The snowy owl as a trade index -- Monkey birds -- Bird-made incubators -- Cormorant fishing -- The shrike's larder -- Bird flavors -- How many feathers has a bird? -- Last year's birds' nests -- Symbiosis: animals living in mixed households -- Bird apartment houses -- Bird helpers at nesting time -- A name for a boat -- Weavers and tailors in the bird world -- Social parasites among birds -- Fish eats bird! -- Crows are smarter than "wise" owls -- Tame wild birds -- Birds as pilferers -- Hibernation in birds -- Snakeskins in birds' nests -- Co-operation by birds -- Watchdogs at the nest -- Bird guides to honey -- Oxpeckers -- Wings in feeding -- Instrumental music of birds -- Conditioning in birds -- Poisonous birds -- Kingfishers on the telephone -- On identifying sea serpents -- Conservation over the telephone -- Birds washing food -- How animal voices sound to foreign ears -- Sight identification -- Green hunting jays turn blue -- How birds use cows as hunting dogs -- Early bird listing -- Battle of the sexes and its evolutionary significance -- Water in the desert -- Bird graveyards -- Animal gardens -- Dropping things -- Learning by birds -- Can birds count? -- Courtship feeding -- They turned the tables -- Survival of the unfit -- Dust and snow bathing -- Decoration in the home -- Curiosity in birds.
|
| Credits |
Tim Lindell, Tom Cosmas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
|
| Summary |
"Stray Feathers From a Bird Man's Desk" by Austin Loomer Rand is a collection of articles on ornithology written in the mid-20th century. The author, a curator of birds at the Chicago Natural History Museum, draws from his extensive research and fieldwork to present intriguing insights into avian behavior, adaptations, and interactions with humans and their environments. The work combines a scientific perspective with engaging narratives and illustrations, aiming to educate and entertain bird enthusiasts and the general public alike. The opening portion of the work introduces the author’s motivation for compiling these sketches, reflecting on his experiences gathering fascinating tidbits of information during his research. Rand explains how he transformed these bits of data—often deemed too interesting to discard—into engaging articles published in the museum's bulletin. He emphasizes his desire to write in a more leisurely and accessible style, presenting various aspects of bird life, from tool use to unusual nesting habits. In this introductory section, Rand sets the tone for a lively exploration of ornithology that highlights the curious behaviors of different bird species. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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| Language |
English |
| LoC Class |
QL: Science: Zoology
|
| Subject |
Birds -- Behavior
|
| Category |
Text |
| EBook-No. |
66306 |
| Release Date |
Sep 14, 2021 |
| Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads |
78 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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