#feathursday

[histsciart]

A Flightless Feathersday

New Zealand kākāpō are large, flightless parrots who are primarily active at night. This illustration was created by David William Mitchell for The Genera of Birds, Vol. 1 (1844-49) by George Robert Gray.

[curiouscatalog]

If you have never seen a photograph of a harpy eagle, find one now. This illustration doesn't even begin to cover it.

From: Robert Merry's museum. Boston : Bradbury, Soden & Co.

AP200 .R63 vol. 3 no. 4 1842

[noelcollection]

Today we grace your digital screens with a lovely pair of European dippers, also known as Water Crows or Pyets (the Scottish name). 

The Naturalist’s Library praises the beauty of the song of Cinclus aquaticus and describes its curious adaptations to living alongside human-made machinery: 

“It may often be seen perched on the inner spokes of the mill-wheel, singing its low melody; and we have known it to breed within the passage of the torrent which drove it … They sport about the banks of the stream, flying short distances, and during flight utter their single monotonous alarm or call note. When about to alight they drop or splash into the pools or stream, and almost never at once settle on the stones or rocks. They are one of our most pleasing songsters, though from the lowness of the note it is not often observed; but to the angler, who plies his rod at all hours, and in the most sequestered scenes, it is a well-known and welcome strain… 

Their breeding places are chosen near to the brook or river, and often in curious situations. The nest is generally constructed under some brow or overhanging rocks, or among the matted roots of a tree; at other times under some fall, which is projected over a space hollow, and comparatively dry within, or beneath the dam or weir which serves to turn off the water to supply machinery; and we have once or twice observed it under the very sluice of the millwheel.”

Image from:

Jardine, William. The naturalist’s library. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars et al., 1843. Vol. 25. Catalog record: https://bit.ly/2Q98p8i

[hdslibrary]

HDSL Feathursday

We always enjoy the posts by @uwmspeccoll so we were thrilled to come across a little something for our own Feathursday! 

This little gem was found in an 18th century work by Johann Arndt, a Lutheran theologian influential in the Pietist movement.

For more great posts that feature birds not just feathers, check out their Feathursday archive here.

Arndt, Johann. Sechs Bücher vom Wahren Christenthum ... nebst dem Paradies-Gärtlein, samt Herrn D. Rambachs historischem Berichte von des sel. Arnds Person und wahrem Christenthume. Achte Auflage. Hof: Verlegts Johann Christoph Leidensrost, 1767.

[cincylibrary]

Mississippi kite. From John James Audubon’s Birds of America v.02, circa 1834-1834.

[loynosca]

#Feathursday brought to you by John Gould’s Birds of Great Britain (1873).

[hagleyvault]

These migratory scaup, or broadbill, ducks are passing through for #Feathursday today. The  birds seen here were illustrated in 1917 for the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company’s Our American Game Birds series.

The series consisted of nineteen prints of paintings of birds by artist Lynn Bogue Hunt (1878–1960), accompanied by descriptive text from ornithologist Edward Howe Forbush (1858-1929), and was released by DuPont’s Sporting Powder Division to advertise shotgun powder. To view more prints from this series, which is part of the Hagley Library’s DuPont Company Museum collection (Accession 1968.001), you can visit this collection’s page in our Digital Archives by clicking here.

[librarycompany]

Learned canary birds perform the most astonishing feats! 

We would especially like to see Grandpapa standing on his head, and Grandma sitting in her chair. 

 Sig'r Blitz, the stage name for Antonio van Zandt, was a British ventriloquist and magician who moved to Philadelphia in 1834.  During the Civil War, Blitz performed what he estimated to be 132 shows to 63,000 soldiers recuperating at various Civil War hospitals in Philadelphia. 

This is a broadside playbill from a benefit show in 1863. Sig. Blitz, The Great Magician and Ventriloquist with his Learned Canary Birds, (Philadelphia, 1863). 

Read more here