For anglers in spring it is always unlucky to see single magpies ; hnt two may always be regarded as a favourable omen; and the reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the young ones ; […]
Canadian Eskimo’s say that in the long ago, before it had all been quite settled whether the human creatures on this earth of ours were to remain in human form or to take the form of birds and animals, or whether the birds and animals were to be changed into human creatures, a group of […]
In the far-away time is told how the wren came about. One day, a young man of Heidelberg lay idly dreaming and pondering under an oak. A beautiful maiden crept forth from a great hole in the trunk of the tree and stood smiling at him. The youth immediately arose and made love to her, […]
Big Man-eater had a wife but stole another woman and carried her to the place where his wife lived. Next day he started off. After he had traveled about hunting for a while he came back without having killed anything. Then he said to his wife, “Cut off a piece of your body and roast […]
All the Mewan tribes, and many belonging to widely different stocks-including even the Washoo of Lake Tahoe and adjacent valleys east of the Sierra, class the Meadowlark among the bad birds. They say he talks too much and is a gossip and they do not like him. The Washoo call him Se-soo-te-ai-le and, like several […]
The song of the k’ok’ota’, or Clay-colored Robin (Turdus grayi) when heard in the morning is a sign that the milpa (corn field) is flowering. However, if it is sitting in a tree when it sings, it means rain is forthcoming. The Q’eqchi’ of Belize have a similar tradition for the Clay-colored Robin, or k’ook’ob, […]
This bird is highly esteemed in Germany for its musical powers, and extravagant prices are given for first-class performers. As an instance may be cited the fact that a workman at Ruhla, in Thuringia, in the excess of his admiration for a good bird, gave a cow in exchange for it, hence the proverb current […]
In Norway crows are thought to go down to hell once every year, when they must appear before Satan and give him a tribute of feathers. The supreme war-goddess of the Gaels of Scotland, was Morrigu, the Red Woman or war goddess, who figures in the adventures of Cuchulain, and whose favorite disguise was to […]
The Sertanejos think that keeping a Campo Troupial as a pet can attract disagreeable events. Consuming a brew made from the meat of the Cactus Parakeet is believed bythe Sertanejos to facilitate the eruption of new teeth in children. Bird nr 3 in the plate. Bezerra, D. Birds and people in semiarid northeastern Brazil: symbolic […]
There is a food taboo for this totemic animal of a particular clan of the Mbuti hunter-gatherers of the Congo. The clan members cannot eat this animal called ngini-so (things prohibited), or ngini-so-su (things prohibited to us), which symbolize their membership of a particular clan. Should one eat such a prohibited animal, his teeth would […]