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Birds-Falcon: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
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.— Shakespeare — Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 348.
The eagle suffers little birds to sing, And is not careful what they mean thereby.— Shakespeare — Titus Andronicus. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 83.
Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling With clangs of wings and scream, the Eagle sailed Incessantly.— SHELLEY — Revolt of Islam. Canto I. St. 10.
He clasps the crag with hooked 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.— TENNYSON — The Eagle.
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.— TENNYSON — The Golden Year. L. 37.
Estridge. Prince Edward all in gold, as he great Jove had been, The Mountfords all in plumes, like estridges were seen.— DRAYTON — Poly-Olbion. St. 22.
All furnish'd, all in arms; All plum'd, like estridges that with the wind Baited, like eagles having lately bath'd.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 97.
Falcon. The falcon and the dove sit there together, And th' one of them doth prune the other's feather.— DRAYTON — Noah's Flood.
I know a falcon swift and peerless As e'er was cradled in the pine; No bird had ever eye so fearless, Or wing so strong as this of mine.— LOWELL — The Falcon.
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?— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 53.
A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 12.
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.— Shakespeare — Taming of the Shrew. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 193.
So, when a falcon skims the airy way, Stoops from the clouds, and pounces on his prey, Dash'd on the earth the feather'd victim lies, Expands its feeble wings, and, flutt'ring, dies. C.— P. WHITEHEAD — The Gymnasiad. Bk. III.
Fowl, Wild. The wildfowl nestled in the brake And sedges, brooding in their liquid bed.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto XIII. St. 57.
Goldfinch. Two goldfinches, whose sprightly song Had been their mutual solace long, Lived happy prisoners there.— COWPER — Faithful Bird.
A goldfinch there I saw, with gawdy pride Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side.— DRYDEN — The Flower and the Leaf. Leaf. L. 106.
Goose. I dare not hope to please a Cinna's ear. Or sing what Varus might vouchsafe to hear; Harsh are the sweetest lays that I can bring, So screams a goose where swans melodious sing.— BEATTIE — Virgil. Pastoral 9.
Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal, O'er head and ears plunge for the common weal? Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories, And cackling save the monarchy of Tories?— POPE — Dunciad. Bk. I. L. 209.
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, Rising and cawing at the gun's report, Sever themselves, and madly sweep the sky,— Shakespeare — Midsummer Night's Dream. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 20.
Gull, Sea. Lack-lustre eye, and idle wing, And smirched breast that skims no more, White as the foam itself, the wave- Hast thou not even a grave Upon the dreary shore, Forlorn, forsaken thing?— D. M. MULOCK — A Dead Sea-Gull.