Author: Jan Thornhill
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1773060074
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 25
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Book Description
Behold the most despised bird in human history! So begins Jan Thornhill’s riveting, beautifully illustrated story of the House Sparrow. She traces the history of this perky little bird, one of the most adaptable creatures on Earth, from its beginnings in the Middle East to its spread with the growth of agriculture into India, North Africa and Europe. Everywhere the House Sparrow went, it competed with humans for grain, becoming such a pest that in some places “sparrow catcher” became an actual job and bounties were paid to those who got rid of it. But not everyone hated the House Sparrow, and in 1852, fifty pairs were released in New York City. In no time at all, the bird had spread from coast to coast. Then suddenly, at the turn of the century, as cars took over from horses and there was less grain to be found, its numbers began to decline. As our homes, gardens, cities and farmland have changed, providing fewer nesting and feeding opportunities, the House Sparrow’s numbers have begun to decline again — though in England and Holland this decline appears to be slowing. Perhaps this clever little bird is simply adapting once more. This fascinating book includes the life history of the House Sparrow and descriptions of how the Ancient Egyptians fed it to the animals they later mummified, how it traveled to Great Britain as a stowaway on ships carrying Roman soldiers, and how its cousin, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, was almost eradicated in China when Mao declared war on it. A wealth of back matter material is also supplied.
Author: Nadejda Grishina-Givago
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Book Description
Author: Ted Floyd
Publisher:
ISBN: 1426220030
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
"In this elegant narrative, celebrated naturalist Ted Floyd guides you through a year of becoming a better birder. Choosing 200 top avian species to teach key lessons, Floyd introduces a new, holistic approach to bird watching and shows how to use the tools of the 21st century to appreciate the natural world we inhabit together whether city, country or suburbs." -- From book jacket.
Author: Chris Chester
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1400033853
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.” --William Shakespeare, Hamlet B fell twenty-five feet from his nest into the life of Chris Chester. The encounter was providential for both of them. B and Chester spent hours together playing games like bottle-cap fetch or hide-and-seek. They learned “words” in each other’s vocabularies. B developed a fetish for nostrils and a dislike of the color yellow. He grew anxious if Chester came home late from work. At bedtime he would rub his sleepy eyes on Chester’s thumb and settle to sleep in his palm. Chester ended up turning part of his house into an aviary and adjusting his social life to meet B’s demands. This was a small price to pay, though, for the trust and comfort of a twenty-five-gram friend who brought joy and wonder back into his life.
Author: Rick Wright (Bird tour leader)
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0547973160
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453
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Book Description
Sparrows are as complicated as they are common. This is an essential guide to identifying 76 kinds, along with a fascinating history of human interactions with them. What, exactly, is a sparrow? All birders (and many non-birders) have essentially the same mental image of a pelican, a duck, or a flamingo, and a guide dedicated to waxwings or kingfishers would need nothing more than a sketch and a single sentence to satisfactorily identify its subject. Sparrows are harder to pin down. This book covers one family (Passerellidae), which includes towhees and juncos, and 76 members of the sparrow clan. Birds have a human history, too, beginning with their significance to native cultures and continuing through their discovery by science, their taxonomic fortunes and misfortunes, and their prospects for survival in a world with ever less space for wild creatures. This book includes not just facts and measurements, but stories--of how birds got their names and how they were discovered--of their entanglement with human history.
Author: A.F. Moritz
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 148700303X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 386
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Book Description
A. F. Moritz has been called “one of the best poets of his generation” by John Hollander and “a true poet” by Harold Bloom, who ranks him alongside Anne Carson. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours throughout North America, including the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Fellowship, Poetry magazine’s Beth Hokin Prize, the Ingram Merrill Fellowship, and the Griffin Poetry Prize. The Sparrow: Selected Poems of A. F. Moritz surveys forty-five years of Moritz’s published poems, from earlier, lesser-known pieces to the widely acclaimed works of the last twenty years. Here are poems of mystery and imagination; of identification with the other; of compassion, judgement, and rage; of love and eroticism; of mature philosophical, sociological, and political analysis; of history and current events; of contemplation of nature; of exaltation and ennui, fullness and emptiness, and the pure succession and splendour of earthly nights and days. The Sparrow is more than a selected poems; it is also a single vast poem, in which the individual pieces can be read as facets of an ever-moving whole. This is the world of A. F. Moritz — a unique combination of lyrical fire and meditative depth, and an imaginative renewal of style and never-ending discovery of form.
Author: Andrew Jackson Downing
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486142825
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 370
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Book Description
This incredibly rich, firsthand source for the most popular styles of 19th-century Victorian architecture presents 26 cottage designs — including Gothic, bracketed, Italianate, "rustic," more — and 155 illustrations (includes floor plans).
Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345510887
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 450
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Book Description
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end. Praise for The Sparrow “A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review “Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly “Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News “[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today
Author: Mary Ellen Klukow
Publisher: Amicus Ink
ISBN: 9781681524900
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Animals face scary challenges every day! These narrative nonfiction books focus on describing the changes to animals habitats that affect the animal's way of life—or even puts their species at risk of dying out! Readers will learn about the reasons for changes in habitats that affect animals and small steps they can take to help protect them. A saltmarsh sparrow is looking for a new place to live after not finding enough food in her current location. She needs to find a place with the right plants and must avoid running into glass buildings and loose pets on the beach. Will the sparrow survive and find a new home? This narrative nonfiction title includes a range map, notes on how to help songbirds, further resources, and a glossary.
Author: Peter Cashwell
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
ISBN: 1589880013
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
An English teacher by trade and an avid birder by inner calling, Peter Cashwell has written a whimsical book about his many obsessions -- birds, birders, language, literature, parenting, pop culture, and the human race.
