In Nepal the Mustangi Gurung believe that after hanging the head of Golden eagles and Lammergeier on the main entrance it is believed that the house is safe from evil. A dead Lammergeier corpse and intestine is also an effective medicine for the treatment of diarrhea for the local people and this is still believed […]
Bird stories, House Martin (Delichon urbicum)
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 […]
Bird stories, Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
In a Levant legend it is related that Solomon was once journeying across the desert, and was fainting with heat, when a large flock of hoopoes came to his assistance and by flying between the sun and the monarch formed an impenetrable cloud with their wings and bodies. Grateful for their ready help, Solomon asked […]
Bird stories, Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis)
The Mustangi Gurung of Nepal chop down the dead body for burial into many pieces and offer the vultures. Lama calls the vulture by praying and blowing his trumpet. There is a belief that a skilled lama can invite only the required number of vulture in accordance to the weight of a dead body to […]
Bird stories, Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta)
The Hammerkop Scopus umbretta, if harmed, can wreak vengeance on the perpetrator and his property – the hills around the village could melt, his cattle could be hit by an epidemic, lightning may strike the man or he may die. It also predicts death by lurking in the water and stirring up pictures from the […]
Bird stories, Griffion Vulture (Gyps fulvus)
The Palestines tell tat when the female vulture was ready to lay an egg, her mate would fly off to search for a hadjar al-nasr, a vulture’s stone. This precious rock was to be found only on a select few mountains, and the male vulture sometimes had to fly as far as the islands of […]
Bird stories, Grey-winged Trumpeter (Psophia crepitans)
Arawak story-tellers also relate that the trumpeter and a kingfisher quarrelled over the spoils of war, and knocked each other into the ashes, which accounts for the gray of their plumage. The nakedness of the trumpeter’s legs is owing to his stepping into an ant’s nest, and getting them picked clean. The Arawaks of British […]
Bird stories, Grey Partidge (Perdix perdix)
Daedalus had a nephew named Perdix, whom he had taken when a boy to teach the trade of builder. But Perdix was a very apt learner and soon surpassed his master in the knowledge of many things. His eyes were ever open to see what was going on about him, and he learned the lore […]
Vintage plate of Plain-bellied Emerald (Agyrtria leucogaster)
In the usual acceptation of the term this is one of the commonest species of Humming-bird with which we are acquainted; in using the word commonest, I intend to convey that it is a bird which has long been known and sent to Europe in great abundance ; all other species will, however, doubtless become […]
Vintage plate of White-chested Emerald (Agyrtria brevrostris chionopectus)
I have looked in vain for a name and description of this very familiar species, which is quite as common in our collections as the Thaumatias leucogaster. The only published figure which at all resembles the bird is that given by Lesson, under the appellation of Omhmya albirostris, in his ” Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux […]