This site is the complete 1902 book A Book of Natural History, page by page as originally printed — period spelling, remedies and opinions included. About this edition →
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Introduction
The HON. JOHN D. LONG, Secretary of the United States Navy, Boston.
The Condor
3 pages
Animals, Birds, and Fishes
THIS volume is made up from the writings of naturalists who have told us of the behavior of animals as they have seen it at first hand and…
The Wonder of Life
VERY one has seen a cornfield. If you pluck up one of the innumerable wheat plants which are fixed in the soil of the field, about harvest…
Life Growth; Frogs
(FROM A SONG OF LIFE.) BY MARGARET WARNER MORLEY.1 S OMEWHAT higher than the fish in the scale of life is the A 1frog. though he begins…
The Man-Like Apes
14 pages
Some Strange Nurseries
6 pages
How Animals Spend the Winter
3 pages
Birds' Nests
3 pages
Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture
11 pages
The Scissor Beak
S T has short legs, web feet, extremely long-pointed wings, and is about the size of a tern. The beak is flattened laterally, that is, in a…
The Umbrella Bird
T HIS singular bird is about the size of a raven, and is of a similar color, but its feathers have a more scaly appearance, from being…
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Highlights
Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture
W HEN civilized man takes possession of new regions and begins cultivating the soil and establishes his sovereignty there, the…
The Story of a Strange Land
T happened a long time ago, it may be fifty thousand years in round numbers, or it may have been twice as many, that a strange…
The Dartmoor Ponies
T WANT you to take a journey with me which I took in imagination a few days ago, as I lay on my back on the sunny moor and…
Protective Resemblances in Spiders
BY ELIZABETH G. PECKHAM.1 T HERE are, among spiders, two forms of protective modification: the first, including all cases of…
The Condor
HIS day I shot a condor. It measured from tip to tip of the wings eight and a half feet, and from beak to tail, four feet. This…
The Man-Like Apes
S OUND knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like Apes has been even more difficult of attainment than…