Raptors

"When God made the oyster, he guaranteed his absolute economic and social security. He built the oyster a house, his shell, to shelter and protect him from his enemies... But when God made the Eagle, He declared, "The blue sky is the limit—build your own house!"… The Eagle, not the oyster, is the emblem of America."

"Since Benjamin Franklin’s eloquent bad-mouthing of the bird when the time came to select a national emblem, the Bald Eagle has been an unjust target for abuse. Its taste for winter-killed fish has made it a “carrion eater.” Its talent for close-range aerial pursuit has made it a “thief.” Its penchant for sitting for long periods and not expending energy without need has made it “lazy,” and this is not fair. Only humans seem to equate frenetic activity with success. Eagles can and do sit for extended periods precisely because they are successful predators who can find food at need. Energy wasted is just that. A waste."

"I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird."

"Yet spirit immortal, the tomb can not bind thee, But like thine own eagle that soars to the sun Thou springest from bondage and leavest behind thee A name which before thee no mortal hath won."

"And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar."

"... I fear that it cannot truthfully be asserted that eagles are absolutely harmless with regard to young lambs, , and very young deer fawns, but I think that the harm alleged to have been done by them has perhaps been exaggerated. I believe that the number of grouse actually killed by them is very small; but of course, if they persistently hunt a , they undoubtedly drive the grouse off the ground. Their food, I think, consists chiefly of hares and rabbits, and where there are plenty of hares they do, I believe, very little damage to other game."

"The chief is the chief. He is the eagle who flies high and cannot be touched by the spit of the toad."

"The eagle suffers little birds to sing, And is not careful what they mean thereby."

"Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change form does not change."

"He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls."

"And thus among these rocks he lived, Through summer heat and winter snow: The Eagle, he was lord above, And Rob was lord below."

"The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction."

"So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.""

"So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart."

"Like a young eagle, who has lent his plume To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom, See their own feathers pluck'd to wing the dart Which rank corruption destines for their heart."

"That eagle's fate and mine are one, Which on the shaft that made him die Espied a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high."

"Let them make their war. Whence come night and day? Whence will the eagle become gray? Whence is it that night is dark? Whence is it that the linnet is green? The ebullition of the sea, How is it not seen?"

"Tho' he inherit Nor the pride, nor ample pinion, That the Theban eagle bear, Sailing with supreme dominion Thro' the azure deep of air."

"King of the peak and glacier, King of the cold, white scalps, He lifts his head at that close tread, The eagle of the Alps."

"Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together."

"The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove."

"Bird of the broad and sweeping wing, Thy home is high in heaven, Where wide the storms their banners fling, And the tempest clouds are driven."

"And little eagles wave their wings in gold."

"I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd From the spungy south to this part of the west, There vanish'd in the sunbeams."

"But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, Leaving no track behind."

"Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling With clangs of wings and scream, the Eagle sailed"

"Shall eagles not be eagles? wrens be wrens? If all the world were falcons, what of that? The wonder of the eagle were the less, But he not less the eagle."

"He was the sultan of the sky, and earth Paid tribute to his eyry."

"The falcon and the dove sit there together, And th' one of them doth prune the other's feather."

"The lady traveler said the falcon was the bird of royals, to which my father replied, – birds do not distinguish one type of man from another but will accept any Master who treats them with dignity."

"The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love; O, the red rose is a falcon, And the white rose is a dove."

"Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?"

"Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim At objects in an airy height; The little pleasure of the game Is from afar to view the flight."

"A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd."

"My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty; And till she stoop, she must not be full-gorg'd, For then she never looks upon her lure."

"Circling higher and higher At last the hawk pulls its shadow From the world."

"It’s hard to recall now that this environmental beacon was once a battlefield and that there was a time when people did not understand the important role birds of prey play in maintaining natural balance. It’s difficult to believe that people’s ignorance was so complete that they thought of hawks as vermin and shot them on sight."

"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."

"When I bestride him I soar, I am a hawk."

"No marvel, an it like your majesty, My lord protector's hawks do tower so well; They know their master loves to be aloft And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch."

"Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch."

"Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar Above the morning lark."

"The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak And stared with his foot on the prey."

"Non rete accipitri tenditur, neque miluo, Qui male faciunt nobis: illis qui nihil faciunt tenditur."

"She rears her young on yonder tree; She leaves her faithful mate to mind 'em; Like us, for fish she sails to sea, And, plunging, shows us where to find 'em. Yo, ho, my hearts! let's seek the deep, Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her, While slow the bending net we sweep, God bless the fish-hawk and the fisher."

"A Wise Old Owl Live In An Imagine Saving The Rainforest & In That Oak The More He Spoke The More He Heard Like Any Other Wise Old Bird."

"Smallest of the British owls, the is only 22 cm from head to tail, which is less than a centimetre larger than a . ... Although Little Owls may be seen during the day, most of their hunting takes place at dusk or the few hours after dark and again around dawn. They will catch small s and sometimes birds, but most of their food is s and s."

"While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention what I was told by a gentleman of the country of Wilts. As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could not account for. After some examination, he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this kind of substance."

"The large white owl that with eye is blind, That hath sate for years in the old tree hollow, Is carried away in a gust of wind."

"The Roman senate, when within The city walls an owl was seen, Did cause their clergy, with lustrations * * * * The round-fac'd prodigy t' avert, From doing town or country hurt."

"In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at dusk—he's abroad and well! Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him— All mock him outright, by day: But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away! O, when the night falls, and roosts the fowl, Then, then, is the reign of the Horned Owl!"

"St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold."

"The wailing owl Screams solitary to the mournful moon."

"The screech-owl, with ill-boding cry, Portends strange things, old women say; Stops every fool that passes by, And frights the school-boy from his play."

"Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit; Tu-who, a merry note."

"It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good night."

"The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots and wonders At our quaint spirits."

"O you virtuous owle, The wise Minerva's only fowle."

"When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits."

"Then lady Cynthia, mistress of the shade, Goes, with the fashionable owls, to bed."

"If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture — that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves."

"The [...] kills wild bulls in the foothills, and it kills the stags in the high mountains."

"There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen."

"The Vulture is a Patient Bird Like a Hole in the Head An Ace Up My Sleeve Want to Stay Alive"

"A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble."

"I started all over again on page 1, circling the 262 pages like a vulture looking for live flesh to scavenge."

"What flocks of critics hover here to-day, As vultures wait on armies for their prey, All gaping for the carcass of a play!"

"I'm not sure why many of us have a negative impression of s; perhaps it's their naked heads, or perhaps we find their diet of the dead and desiccated unappealing. ... Instead of defending themselves with s or teeth, they vomit in the general direction of a threat, certainly not the most charming attribute. Above all, I think we dislike turkey vultures because they remind us of our own mortality and that life will continue after we die—and that, as with all animals, something will be waiting to consume our bodies."

"Prometheus, I have no Titan's might, Yet I, too, must each dusk renew my heart, For daytime's vulture talons tear apart The tender alcoves built by love at night."

"There you are! Dad always said that milk is good for your eyesight. Vultures are good for one thing and one thing only - their talons. They make great mental acuity that I would care to call consciousness. But I am also confident—without wrapping myself in unresolvable arguments about definitions—that vultures and sloths, as close evolutionary relatives with the same basic set of organs."

"I'm a culture vulture, and I just want to experience it all."

"That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore, Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore."

"The vultures that once wheeled over our heads must be buried with their prey."

"The eagle, soaring, clear-eyed, competitive, prepared to strike, but not a vulture. Noble, visionary, majestic, that people can believe in and be inspired by, that creates such a lift that it soars. I can see that being a good logo for the principled company."

"Never stoops the soaring vulture On his quarry in the desert, On the sick or wounded bison, But another vulture, watching From his high aerial look-out Sees the downward plunge, and follows; And a third pursues the second, Coming from invisible ether, First a speck, and then a vulture , Till the air is dark with pinions."

"I am ... a friend of the mountain buzzards and feeder of seacoast vultures."

"Vultures are one of the few bird species that are afraid of their own dead. But only when they're hung at the roost site. If you hang them anywhere else then they'll eat them."

"You have no idea how fortunate you are, because I'm a particularly loathsome guest and I eat like a vulture. Unfortunately, the resemblance doesn't end there."

"God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates."

"He can wax poetic about pigeons and even has kind words for vultures. Vultures are homely, but they clean up all the garbage and that's good. And they're elegant in the sky."

"Live with vultures, become a vulture; live with crows, become a crow"

"The one term I don't like to be called is a 'vulture. Because to me, a vulture is a kind of asset-stripper that eats dead flesh off the bones of a dead creature. Our bird should be the phoenix, the bird that reinvents itself, recreates itself from its ashes. And that's much closer to what it is that we really do."

"The vultures to the conqueror’s banner true Who feed where Desolation first has fed, And whose wings rain contagion."

"I will love you ... as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture."

"A vulture on board; bald, red, queer-shaped head, featherless red places here and there on his body, intense great black eyes set in featherless rims of inflamed flesh; dissipated look; a business-like style, a selfish, conscienceless, murderous aspect — the very look of a professional assassin, and yet a bird which does no murder. What was the use of getting him up in that tragic style for so innocent a trade as his ? For this one isn't the sort that wars upon the living, his diet is offal — and the more out of date it is the better he likes it. Nature should give him a suit of rusty black ; then he would be all right, for he would look like an undertaker and would harmonize with his business ; whereas the way he is now he is horribly out of true."

"There too huge Tityos, whom Earth that gendereth all things, Once foster’d, spreadeth-out o’er nine full roods his immense limbs. On him a wild vulture with hook-beak greedily gorgeth His liver upsprouting quick as that Hell-chicken eateth. Shé diggeth and dwelleth under the vast ribs, her bloody bare neck Lifting anon: ne’er loathes-she the food, ne’er fails the renewal."

"Spain stooped on South America, like a vulture on its prey. Every thing was force. Territories were acquired by fire and sword."

"For an author Jerry Vail was rather nice-looking, most authors, as is widely known, resembling in appearance the more degraded types of fish, unless they look like birds, when they could pass as vultures and no questions asked."