The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the CuriousStauffer, Frank H.
History
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious
Stauffer, Frank H.
Literary curiosa
The Hartford Times tells a curious story of a flock of crows in that
vicinity who recently lost their way in a fog. They lost their bearings
at a point directly above the South Green, in Hartford. For a good while
they hovered there, coming low down, circling and diving aimlessly
about, like a blindfolded person in "blind man's buff," and keeping up a
hoarse cawing and general racket beyond description. It was plain enough
that of the entire company each individual crow was not only puzzled and
bothered, but highly indignant, and inclined to utter "cuss words" in
his frantic attempts to be heard above the general din, and tell the
others which way to go. Once or twice the whole flock swept down to a
distance of not more than one hundred feet above the street. Finally,
after going around for many times, they sailed away in a southerly
direction, evidently having got some clue to the way out of the fog, or
desperately resolved to go _somewhere_ till they could see daylight.
_The Peacock at Home._
Peacocks are found in almost all parts of India and Siam, and the
multitudes in which they occur in some districts is wonderful. Colonel
Williamson, in his "Oriental Field Sports," says: "About the passes in
the Jungletery district whole woods were covered with the beautiful
plumage, to which a rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. I speak
within bounds when I assert that there could not have been less than
1200 or 1500 pea-fowls, of various sizes, within sight of the spot where
I stood." Sir James Emerson Tennent says, in his work on Ceylon, "that
in some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern province, to which
Europeans rarely resort, and where the pea-fowl are unmolested by the
natives, their number is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it
ceased to be sport to destroy them; and their cries at early morning are
so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, and amount to an actual
inconvenience."
_Story of the Dodo._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account