"Fantail" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... aerial acrobatics after flies? Yet this family seems to be peculiarly prone to the vanity of a stylish tail. The paradise flycatcher flutters two streamers a foot long, like white ribbons, behind it. The fantail could hide behind its own fan. The bee-eater has the two central feathers prolonged and pointed. The drongos, which are flycatchers in habit, wear their tails very long and deeply forked; and one of them, the racket-tailed drongo, has the two side feathers extended beyond the rest for ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)
... of bacon in the forrard hold! Pile it in! Levy on that turpentine in the fantail-drench every stick of ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
... I knew, a cloud of spears sailed out of the mangrove swamp at me. At least a dozen were sticking into me. I started to run, but tripped over one that was fast in my calf, and went down. The woolly-heads made a run for me, each with a long-handled, fantail tomahawk with which to hack off my head. They were so eager for the prize that they got in one another's way. In the confusion, I avoided several hacks by throwing myself right and left on ...
— South Sea Tales • Jack London
... 'Maui' — In Polynesian mythology, the great hero who attempted to overcome Death, which could only be done by passing through Hine-nui-te-po (Great Woman of Night). This Maui attempted to do while she slept. Awakened, however, by the cry of a black fantail, she ...
— An Anthology of Australian Verse • Bertram Stevens
... the gate and she peeped in— Grass and the weeds up to her chin; Said, 'A rake and a hoe and a fantail plow Would suit you better than a wife ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes
... imperial eagle, the eagle with the fantail, came, and soared over the people. It dropped a downy feather which stood upright in the center of the cleared space. The chief said, "This is what ...
— Myths and Legends of the Great Plains • Unknown
... Yellow Fantail, cock. Second prize Red Fantail, hen, Second prize Red or Yellow Fantail, 1904. Sixth prize Any Color Saddle Fantail, cock. Third prize Any Color Saddle Fantail, cock. Fourth prize Any Color Saddle Fantail, hen. First prize Any Color Saddle Fantail, 1904. Third ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis
... the month the white-browed fantail flycatchers (Rhipidura albifrontata) begin to nest. The loud and cheerful song of this little feathered exquisite is a tune of six or seven notes that ascend and descend the musical scale. It is one of ...
— A Bird Calendar for Northern India • Douglas Dewar
... crucial example, you lead me to infer (page 414) that you believe "that variation has been led along certain beneficial lines." I cannot believe this; and I think you would have to believe, that the tail of the Fantail was led to vary in the number and direction of its feathers in order to gratify the caprice of a few men. Yet if the Fantail had been a wild bird, and had used its abnormal tail for some special ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II • Francis Darwin |
