Of buds and hooves
Who would think to liken the shape of a bud to the hooves of cattle? And that cuckoo singing all night!
...
Of merry audacious jays
Two fine metaphors here, describing the nature and the cry of jays, though the first of these is by now...
Eagles colour the country they inhabit
The opening of this quotation had me asking how we 'colour the country we inhabit'? I also like the following...
Crisp-winged flies
A symbiosis of hovering birds and fly-pestered bullocks, the darting martins hoovering up bothersome crisp-winged flies.
'Martins twittered along the...
A murder of crows
A memorable collective noun, though perhaps unfair on the poor old crow. I have a soft spot for these intelligent...
Birds of war
The more I learn about birds, the more that 'bird brain' seems a misnomer. Here they are in a war...
Of frantic birds and free human beings
A withering riposte to any attempt at ensnarement or wing-clipping. Mr. Rochester tries to bind Jane to him but soon...
A quirky word for an ordinary bird
I was curious about this term and didn’t expect it to be simply the North American name for a long-tailed...
Dark-plumed name
The name of the man Orlando will marry is ornate and rare and fully deserving to be called 'dark-plumed': Marmaduke...
Silver-shouldered flight
A perfect morning on the remote Scottish bay Maxwell made his refuge for the last ten or so years of...
As the falcon flies
Even the rhythm of this simile conveys something of a great bird's single, confident swoop to land precisely on a...
Million-fingered responsiveness
Nicolson captures the single signal transmitted through a vast flock of geese, yielding a 'million-fingered responsiveness'.
'They are...
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