... elegant butterfly, who seemed to be an officer in uniform, was standing on his hind legs at the right of the entrance. His waist was very slim, his wings were very rich, and he was curling and uncurling his proboscis languidly. Sara slid off the Gahoppigas and approached ... — The Garden of the Plynck • Karle Wilson Baker Read full book for free!
... vertebrae into a short and free tail, though it thus becomes in one sense more perfectly developed, may at the same time be considered as an arrest of development, and as a case of reversion. The greater frequency of a monstrous kind of proboscis in the pig than in any other mammal, considering the position of the pig {58} in the mammalian series, has likewise been attributed, ... — The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) • Charles Darwin Read full book for free!
... betrays to a hitherto unsuspecting intruder the location of his home. After the young birds have to be fed he is most diligent in collecting food, that consists not alone of the sweet juices of flowers, as is popularly supposed, but also of aphides and plant-lice that his proboscis-like tongue licks off the garden foliage literally ... — Bird Neighbors • Neltje Blanchan Read full book for free!
... kosto. prick : piki. primrose : primolo. principle : principo. print : presi; gravurajxo. prison : malliberejo. private : privata, konfidencia. privilege : privilegio. prize : premio; sxati. probable : kredebla. problem : problemo. proboscis : rostro. process : proceso. procession : procesio. proclaim : proklami. profession : profesio. professor : profesoro profit : profito, gajno. progress : progreso. pronounce : elparoli. proof : pruvo, provo, presprovajxo. proper : gxusta, konvena, ... — The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer Read full book for free!
... American girl or to so compromise her that the same end would be attained. He was shrewd enough to realize that he had little chance to get what he wanted in the open matrimonial market, so he determined to attempt a raid and carry off an heiress under her father's nose, and the particular proboscis he had selected was that of his employer's friend, Senator Roberts. The senator and Miss Roberts were frequently at the Ryder House and in course of time the aristocratic secretary and the daughter had become quite intimate. A flighty girl, with no other purpose ... — The Lion and The Mouse - A Story Of American Life • Charles Klein Read full book for free!
... want the owner, so I fled, distraught with fear, To the Main Drain sewage outfall while he snorted in my ear— Reached the four-foot drain-head safely and, in darkness and despair, Felt the brute's proboscis fingering my ... — The Kipling Reader - Selections from the Books of Rudyard Kipling • Rudyard Kipling Read full book for free!
... some seconds with a foolish solemnity, with the pasteboard proboscis still between his fingers, looking at it, while the sun and the clouds and the wooded hills looked ... — The Man Who Was Thursday - A Nightmare • G. K. Chesterton Read full book for free!
... confinement Came trooping forth from the chamber, dissembling all, as they passed him, Hilarious sentiments painful indeed to observe, and remarking: "O friend and colleague of the Speaker, what ails the unjoyous proboscis?" ... — Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce Read full book for free!
... and error is easy when making allowance for their loss by wind, rain, or change of temperature. The insects walk over the whole leaf, and choose their places sheltered as much as possible, although still covered by the rags. After 8-10 days they insert the proboscis into the cactus, and never stir till gathered. At the end of three and a half to four months they become 'grains of cochineal,' not unlike wheat, but smaller, rounder, and thicker. The sign of maturity is the appearance of new ... — To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton Read full book for free!
... animals. They never shed their large teeth before death; neither do they do any harm to man unless provoked. In that case the elephant makes his attack with his trunk, which is a kind of nose, protruded to a great length. He can contract and extend this proboscis at pleasure, and is able to toss a man with it as far as a sling can throw a stone. It is in vain to think of escape by running, let the person be ever so swift, in case the elephant pursues in earnest, as ... — A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr Read full book for free!
... mit der poys," replied Snyder, laying his finger tenderly against his proboscis; "the sun it pese hot like ash never vas, und I purns my nose. Nice nose, don't it?" And Snyder viewed it with a look of comical sadness in the little mirror back of his bar. It entered at once into the head of the mischievous ... — The Universal Reciter - 81 Choice Pieces of Rare Poetical Gems • Various Read full book for free!
... to have leisure upon my hands!—What a matchless plotter thy friend!—Stand by, and let me swell!—I am already as big as an elephant, and ten times wiser!—Mightier too by far! Have I not reason to snuff the moon with my proboscis?—Lord help thee for a poor, for a very poor creature!—Wonder not that I despise thee heartily; since the man who is disposed immoderately to exalt himself, cannot do it but by despising every body ... — Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson Read full book for free!
... was covered with a short brown fur, with lighter hair of a dun colour under the throat; and, what gave it the singular appearance whence its name of "sea-elephant" was probably more derived than from its size, was the pendulous nostrils, which hung down over its mouth, just like the proboscis or long trunk of ... — The Wreck of the Nancy Bell - Cast Away on Kerguelen Land • J. C. Hutcheson Read full book for free!
... the young women looked at the sheepshead aquarium and murmured: "What long bills they have." Her escort smiled in a knowing way and said: "That is not a bill; that is a proboscis, I believe. I wish I had ... — The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam') Read full book for free!
... Observation. The proboscis of the elephant, the extremities of the tails of certain species of monkeys, and the tentacula of some kinds of fish, receive a more abundant supply of sensitive nerves than ... — A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter Read full book for free!
... of Arion on his dolphin; he wears a cap ending in a long proboscis-like horn, and plays a violin with a curious twitch of the bow and wag of the head, very graphically expressed, but still without anything approaching to the power of Northern grotesque. His dolphin has a goodly row of teeth, and the waves beat over ... — The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3) • John Ruskin Read full book for free!
... and of the terrivel tamanduas bandeira, a toothless pachyderm, with a long and hairy tail, long nails, and powerful arms, the embrace of which is said to be sufficient to kill a man, or even a jaguar, so foolish as to endeavour wrestling with it. It had a long protruding nose or proboscis, which it inserted into ant-heaps. A tongue of abnormal length was further pushed out, and then quickly withdrawn when crammed with attacking ants. Ants were its favourite food. Although my men talked all the time of the terrible bandeiras, ... — Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor Read full book for free!
... screeching violently. The animals, though moving a little away, erected their ears, and gave a roar that shook the ground under them. One was an immense fellow. The party wheeled swiftly round him, and Maraymy casting a spear at him, which struck him just under the tail, the huge brute threw up his proboscis in the air with a loud roar, and from it cast such a volume of sand as nearly to blind the major, who ... — Great African Travellers - From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley • W.H.G. Kingston Read full book for free!
...PROBOSCIS, n. The rudimentary organ of an elephant which serves him in place of the knife-and-fork that Evolution has as yet denied him. For purposes of humor it is popularly ... — The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce Read full book for free!
... faculties may be exercised upon suitable subjects. The pleasure of this exercise is in itself sufficient: we need not say to a child, "Look at the wings of this beautiful butterfly, and I will give you a piece of plum-cake; observe how the butterfly curls his proboscis, how he dives into the honeyed flowers, and I will take you in a coach to pay a visit with me, my dear. Remember the pretty story you read this morning, and you shall have a new coat." Without the new coat, or the visit, or the plum-cake, the child would have had sufficient ... — Practical Education, Volume I • Maria Edgeworth Read full book for free!
... added a complex and elaborate description of what they didn't. Containing also the exultant record of their memorable success in eventually obtaining, each and every one, a sight of the entire and unadulterated animal, from the primitive hair on his attenuated proboscis, to the last kink ... — Nothing to Say - A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery, Which Has 'Nothing - to Do' with 'Nothing to Wear' • QK Philander Doesticks Read full book for free!
... the De Partibus Aristotle clearly enunciates the principle of the division of labour, afterwards emphasised by H. Milne-Edwards. In some insects, he says, the proboscis combines the functions of a tongue and a sting, in others the tongue and the sting are quite separate. "Now it is better," he goes on, "that one and the same instrument shall not be made to serve several dissimilar ends; but that there shall be one organ to serve ... — Form and Function - A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology • E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell Read full book for free!
... elephant was here caught alive, as he was climbing up the bank to follow his retreating dam. When laid hold of, he screamed with so much energy that, to escape a visit from the enraged mother, we steamed off, and dragged him through the water by the proboscis. As the men were holding his trunk over the gunwale, Monga, a brave Makololo elephant-hunter, rushed aft, and drew his knife across it in a sort of frenzy peculiar to the chase. The wound was skilfully sewn up, and the young animal soon became quite tame, but, unfortunately ... — A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone Read full book for free!
... over the pages of a picture-book of mammalia will be likely to forget the odd-looking animal known as the tapir. Its long proboscis-like snout, its stiff-maned neck, and clumsy hog-like body, render the tout ensemble of this creature so peculiar, that there is no mistaking it for any ... — The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid Read full book for free!
... welcome Mr. Churchill to her house, ordered the servant to set the table for dinner. Just then the groom entered the house to enquire when the carriage would be required in the evening, and the appearance of his nose set the whole party laughing heartily; his proboscis had assumed a deep red hue, and was swollen to an enormous size, giving him a most comical appearance. O'Grady ordered him to bring the carriage round at ten o'clock, and, dinner just then being announced, they prepared, in true English fashion, ... — The Mysteries of Montreal - Being Recollections of a Female Physician • Charlotte Fuhrer Read full book for free!
... with wild races whose intelligence is all native and self-evolved. Moreover, the horse at least has to some slight extent a prehensile organ in his very mobile and sensitive lip, which he uses like an undeveloped or rudimentary proboscis to feel things all over with. So that the dog alone remains as a contradictory instance; and even the dog derives his cleverness indirectly from man, whose hand and thumb in the last resort are really at the bottom of ... — Science in Arcady • Grant Allen Read full book for free!
... and gentlemen," said a strange voice issuing from the darkness, "we shall show you the wonders of the oxy-hydrogen microscope; natural objects magnified five thousand times. Look and behold the proboscis of ... — The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage Read full book for free!
... progenitor of the tribe of the Beekmans, one of the most ancient and honorable families of the province; the members of which do gratefully commemorate the origin of their dignity, nor as your noble families in England would do by having a glowing proboscis emblazoned in their escutcheon, but by one and all wearing a right goodly nose stuck in the very middle of ... — Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving Read full book for free!
... length, and four in height, it is the largest quadruped in South America. In form it is somewhat like the hog; but its snout is lengthened into a flexible proboscis, which resembles the rudiment of the elephant's trunk, and serves for the same purpose—that of twisting round the launches of trees and tearing off the leaves, on which it partly feeds. Like the rhinoceros, it delights in water, is a good ... — The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston Read full book for free!
... frontier in any direction. But the vineyards were among the finest in Europe. The prince was a widower, and among his own people was affectionately styled "der Rotnaesig," which, I believe, designates an illuminated proboscis. When he wasn't fishing for rainbow trout he was sleeping in his cellars. He was often missing at the monthly reviews, but nobody ever worried; they knew where to find him. And besides, he might just as ... — The Princess Elopes • Harold MacGrath Read full book for free!
... Microtus tunnels with a hatchet in order to set the traps and we were almost frozen before the work was completed. The next morning we had caught twenty specimens of a new white-bellied meadow vole and a remarkable shrew with a long curved proboscis. ... — Camps and Trails in China - A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China • Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews Read full book for free!
... they find no difficulty in digging it with pointed sticks. They consider English iron as "rotten"; and I have seen, when a javelin of their own iron lighted on the cranium of a hippopotamus, it curled up like the proboscis of a butterfly, and the owner would prepare it for future use by straightening it COLD with two stones. I brought home some of the hoes which Sekeletu gave me to purchase a canoe, also some others obtained in Kilimane, and they have been found ... — Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone Read full book for free!
... permitted to go at large. This huge animal used to walk about the streets in the most quiet and orderly manner, and paid many visits through the city to people who were kind to him. Two cobblers took an ill will to this inoffensive creature, and several times pricked him on the proboscis with their awls. The noble animal did not chastise them in the manner he might have done, and seemed to think they were too contemptible to be angry with them. But he took other means to punish them for their cruelty. He filled his trunk with water ... — Stories about Animals: with Pictures to Match • Francis C. Woodworth Read full book for free!
... he kept the same position, but they noticed that his tail no longer switched about, and that his attitude was loose and drooping. Now and then he turned his proboscis to the spot where he had received the thrust of the kobaoba's horn. It was evident that the wound was distressing him, and this became more apparent by the loud painful breathing the creature uttered ... — The Bush Boys - History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family • Captain Mayne Reid Read full book for free!
... the poor elephant (who was so barbarously put to death at Exeter 'Change) with potatoes, which he took out of my hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just out of the reach of his proboscis. He leaned against his wooden bar, put out his trunk, and could just touch the potato, but could not pick it up. After several ineffectual efforts, he at last blew the potato against the opposite wall with sufficient ... — The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 19, No. 543, Saturday, April 21, 1832. • Various Read full book for free!
... under-lip is lengthened, Like a trunk or proboscis, Ending by a kind of button, Fringed with ... — Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller Read full book for free!
... woman was meanly dressed in a blue garment, with a hood of the same over her head, her face being concealed by one of those hideous narrow black veils, fastened across under the eyes, which always reminded me of the proboscis of an elephant. Her hands were clasped upon the arms of the man just above the elbow, who held her in the same manner, and several people were endeavouring to part them, as they struggled much in the same manner which prevails in a melodrame, ... — Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay • Miss Emma Roberts Read full book for free!
... pigeons, and Muscovy ducks are seen. Honey is very cheap; a good large pot of about a gallon, with four fowls, was given for two yards of calico. Buffaloes again bitten by tsetse, and by another fly exactly like the house-fly, but having a straight hard proboscis instead of a soft one; other large flies make the blood run. The tsetse does not disturb the buffaloes, but these others and the smaller flies do. The tsetse seem to like the camel best; from these they are gorged with blood—they do ... — The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone Read full book for free!
... He had a small field-piece mounted with him on his elephant, which he then discharged at me, and the grape-shot coming in a shower, rattled in the laurels that covered and shaded me all over, and remained pendant like berries on the branches. I then, advancing, took the proboscis of his elephant, and turning it against the rider, struck him repeatedly with the extremity of it on either side of the head, until I at length dismounted him. Nothing could equal the rage of the barbarian finding himself thrown from his elephant. ... — The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe Read full book for free!
... while above us the long branches of enormous forest trees stretched over us on either side, and formed a kind of natural archway, their branches alive with monkeys of every description, from the hideous proboscis to the pretty wa-wa, whose cry exactly resembles the running of water from a narrow-necked bottle. We emerged from this lovely glade half an hour after entering it, and, the stream again widening, the scenery again became flat and monotonous. ... — On the Equator • Harry de Windt Read full book for free!
... coincidence publicity license tenacity crescent prejudice scenery condescend effervesce proboscis scintillate oscillate rescind transcend ... — The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language - Word-Study and Composition & Rhetoric • Sherwin Cody Read full book for free!
... royally perfumed, and its colour is so splendiferously tanned, that I am doubtful if I recognise you as belonging to this race, since I have never seen any of them so gloriously attired. However you have swallowed the grain after the antique fashion. Your proboscis is a proboscis of sapience; you have kicked like a learned shrew-mouse; but if you are a true shrew-mouse, you should have in I know not what part of your ear—I know not what special auditorial channel, which I know not, what wonderful door, closes I know not how, and I know not with ... — Droll Stories, Volume 2 • Honore de Balzac Read full book for free!
... intensest. I permitted one to alight on my flannel pyjamas, which I wore while en deshabille in camp. No sooner had he alighted than his posterior was raised, his head lowered, and his weapons, consisting of four hair-like styles, unsheathed from the proboscis-like bag which concealed them, and immediately I felt pain like that caused by a dexterous lancet-cut or the probe of a fine needle. I permitted him to gorge himself, though my patience and naturalistic interest were sorely tried. I saw his abdominal parts distend with ... — How I Found Livingstone • Sir Henry M. Stanley Read full book for free!
... from her damask bud; Steep in ambrosial dews the Woodbine's bells, 500 And drive the Night-moth from her honey'd cells. So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers On murmuring pinions robs the pendent flowers; Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm distill, And sucks the treasure with proboscis-bill; 505 Fair CYPREPEDIA with successful guile Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes her smile; A Spiders bloated paunch and jointed arms Hide her fine form, and mask her blushing charms; In ambush sly the mimic ... — The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin Read full book for free!
... gnat's proboscis, Throng not the naked beauty! Frogs and crickets in the mosses, Keep ... — The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke Read full book for free!
... instead of lying close like a wasp's. The belly also is well fortified, and looks like a breastplate, with its broad bands and scales. Its weapons are not in the tail as with wasp and bee, but in its mouth and proboscis; with the latter, in which it is like the elephant, it forages, takes hold of things, and by means of a sucker at its tip attaches itself firmly to them. This proboscis is also supplied with a projecting tooth, with which the fly makes a puncture, and so drinks blood. It does drink milk, ... — Works, V3 • Lucian of Samosata Read full book for free!
... With this proboscis, his good purpose, and the cup, the justice went the following morning to the house between the olive ... — The Broken Cup - 1891 • Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke Read full book for free!
... or the immense tusks of the later elephants. By the discovery and study of these earlier forms we have within the last ten years arrived at a knowledge of the steps by which the elephant acquired in the course of long ages (millions of years) his "proboscis" (as the Greeks first called it), and I will later sketch ... — More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester Read full book for free!
... was good, his hair dark, forehead without a wrinkle, high and massive, eyes bright and sparkling, nose neither fine nor dumpy—a fair enough proboscis as noses go. There was an expression about the upper lip and mouth that I did not like—a constant nervous sort of lifting of the lip as it were; and as the mustache appeared to have been recently shaven off, ... — Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott Read full book for free!
... to impair confidence. Then Leon Coventry went away, and Boggs discovered (or invented) an important engagement with a growing family of clothes-moths in a Connecticut country house. So there remained only the faithful Phil. One swallow does not make a summer; nor does one youth with a vernal proboscis convince a skeptical public that it is enjoying the fearful companionship of a subversive and revolutionary cult. Patronage ebbed out as fast as it had flooded in. Barbran's eyes were as soft and happy as ever in the evenings, when she and Phil sat in a less and less interrupted ... — From a Bench in Our Square • Samuel Hopkins Adams Read full book for free!
... wrong, but the clerk jumped to his feet and sniffed the air in the direction of Prescott. "Why, gentlemen," said he, "of course, you cannot smell any further than the blossoms on the tips of your noses, but the young man has a sharp proboscis, he scents the girls. Here comes Dan bound for the Silver Bell Mine with his blooming show." We heard the clatter of hoofs and wheels and saw a large coach pass by, crowded with passengers, mostly ladies. The clerk said that the genial owner of the Silver Bell Mine, who was also ... — Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann Read full book for free!
... indeed endued with a fine sense of feeling at the extremity of his proboscis, and hence has acquired much more accurate ideas of touch and of sight than most other creatures. The two following instances of the sagacity of these animals may entertain the reader, as they were told me by some gentlemen of distinct observation, ... — Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin Read full book for free!
... because he was not much of a cricketer himself. He said he was too short-sighted, and that it suited him better to poke in the hedges for beetles. He had a splendid collection of insects. Bustard used to say that he poked with his nose, as if he were an insect himself, and it was a proboscis but he said too that his father said it was a pleasure to see Weston make a section of anything, and prepare objects for the microscope. His fingers were as clever ... — A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing Read full book for free!
... most frequently in all the manuscripts, is a figure with a long, proboscis-like, pendent nose and a tongue (or teeth, fangs) hanging out in front and at the sides of the mouth, also with a characteristic head ornament resembling a knotted bow and with a peculiar rim to the eye. Fig. 7 is the hieroglyph of this deity. ... — Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts • Paul Schellhas Read full book for free!
... extraordinary arrangement—unique among orchids, I believe—will be discovered one day, for purpose there is, no doubt; to judge by analogy, it may be supposed that the insect upon which Onc. serratum depends for fertilization likes to stand upon this ring while thrusting its proboscis into the nectary. The fourth of these fine species, Onc. superbiens, ranks among the grandest of flowers—knowing its own value, it rarely consents to "oblige;" the dusky green sepals are margined with yellow, petals white, ... — About Orchids - A Chat • Frederick Boyle Read full book for free!
... he is receiving the attack of a lion on his arm, covered with a mantle; and then, with a raised sword, cutting at the proboscis of an elephant. I have seen, also, an older specimen, I think, of the same manufacture; the subject being the "Bear and Ragged Staff," on alternate rows, with figures of trumpeters. I know not ... — Notes & Queries, No. 43, Saturday, August 24, 1850 • Various Read full book for free!
... she was presently certain, as by this great generous object of Mr., Pitman's flame, who without optical aid, it well might have seemed, nevertheless entirely grasped her—might in fact, all benevolently, have been groping her over as by some huge mild proboscis. She gave Mrs. Brack pleasure in short; and who could say of what other pleasures the poor lady ... — The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various Read full book for free!
... fair ahead of us. Luckily. I play rather well myself. As I said just now, I have been nosing among the people—nosing is a good word in my case, isn't it?"—he pointed to his much-extended proboscis—"I have been nosing about to learn the Count's ruling passions and so forth. When you have anybody to hoodwink, or obtain access to without creating suspicion, find out what are his likings and preoccupations: be sure there will be something ... — The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens Read full book for free!
... wrath. Tomlinson's answer softened Nabbem; and by way of conciliation, he held his snuff-box to the nose of his unfortunate prisoner. Shutting his eyes, Tomlinson long and earnestly sniffed up the luxury, and as soon as, with his own kerchief of spotted yellow, the officer had wiped from the proboscis some ... — Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton Read full book for free!
... comes to seek whom it may devour; for, like the pestilence, it walks in darkness. It can fly, and in a dark room knows where you are and can find you. Having selected a nice tender part, it pierces the skin with its proboscis or rostrum, and sucks vigorously for two or three minutes, and, strange to say, you do not feel the operation, even when lying wide awake. By that time the creature, so attenuated before, has assumed ... — The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson Read full book for free!
... cultivate the scientific eye and the detached scientific mind," said he. "To a man of philosophic temperament like myself the blood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis and its distending stomach, is as beautiful a work of Nature as the peacock or, for that matter, the aurora borealis. It pains me to hear you speak of it in so unappreciative a fashion. No doubt, with due diligence, we ... — The Lost World • Arthur Conan Doyle Read full book for free!
... Madagascar orchid, with a whip-like nectary, 11 to 12 in. in length, which, according to Darwin ("Fertilisation of Orchids," 2nd Edit., p. 163), is adapted to the visits of a moth with a proboscis of corresponding length. He points out that there is no difficulty in believing in the existence of such a moth as F. Mueller had described (Nature, 1873, p. 223), a Brazilian sphinx-moth with a trunk 10 to 11 in. in length. Moreover, ... — Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Marchant Read full book for free!
... got any name. Principal towns—why, what ARE those creatures, making honey down there? They can't be bees—nobody ever saw bees a mile off, you know—' and for some time she stood silent, watching one of them that was bustling about among the flowers, poking its proboscis into them, 'just as if it was a ... — Through the Looking-Glass • Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll Read full book for free!
... way in the science, and soon came to understand that, provided a man had a nose sufficiently conspicuous he might, by merely following it, arrive at a Lionship. But my attention was not confined to theories alone. Every morning I gave my proboscis a couple of pulls and swallowed a half dozen ... — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe Read full book for free!
... Bees by which the flower is fertilised, and to which it is especially adapted; the white colour makes the flower more conspicuous; the lower lip forms the stage on which the Bees may alight; the length of the tube is adapted to that of their proboscis; its narrowness and the fringe of fine hairs exclude small insects which might rob the flower of its honey without performing any service in return; the arched upper lip protects the stamens and pistil, and prevents rain-drops from choking up the tube and washing away the ... — The Beauties of Nature - and the Wonders of the World We Live In • Sir John Lubbock Read full book for free!
... capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have ... — The Whence and the Whither of Man • John Mason Tyler Read full book for free!
... are the most prominent features. Below the head, however, may be seen, now coiled up like a watch-spring, now stretched out to draw the nectar from some scented blossom, the butterfly's sucking trunk or proboscis, situated between a pair of short hairy limbs or palps (fig. 2). These palps belong to the appendages of the hindmost segment of the head, appendages which in insects are modified to form a hind-lip or labium, bounding ... — The Life-Story of Insects • Geo. H. Carpenter Read full book for free!
... in Borneo is the proboscis, or long-nosed. I saw but two specimens of this animal, one a female, with the nose very long, and pendulous at the extremity; the other a male, very young, and with the nose more or less prominent, ... — Borneo and the Indian Archipelago - with drawings of costume and scenery • Frank S. Marryat Read full book for free!
... from the keepers. Think what a good example elephants are for school boys. I have only told you a very little about this wonderful animal; yet enough, I hope, to make you want to read some of the many books about him. You have, I think, read of the story of the elephant who was wounded in his proboscis or trunk, and, in his anger, unintentionally killed his keeper, and of ... — What the Animals Do and Say • Eliza Lee Follen Read full book for free!
... of other commercial intelligence, I may quote the market in Mr. Hornaday's line: Tigers are still reported "lively;" orang-outangs "looking up;" pythons show but little animation at this season of the year; proboscis monkeys, on the other hand, continue scarce; there is quite a run on lions, and kangaroos are jumped at with avidity; elephants heavy; birds of paradise drooping; crocodiles are snapped up as offered, while dugongs bring ... — Round the World • Andrew Carnegie Read full book for free!
... operated on the string, And from it, what was tied, soon gave a spring; Broke loose at once, just like a mettled steed, That, having slipt its halter, flies with speed; Against the abbess' nose with force it flew, And spectacles from her proboscis threw. ... — The Tales and Novels, Complete • Jean de La Fontaine Read full book for free!
... said to be a purely vegetable production when found in the combs, for after being collected by the insect by means of its proboscis, it is transmitted into what is called the honey bag, where it is elaborated, and, hurrying homewards with its precious load, the bee regurgitates it into the cell of the honey comb. It takes a great many drops to fill a cell, as the honey bag ... — A Description of the Bar-and-Frame-Hive • W. Augustus Munn Read full book for free!
... perfect insects, have implements for sapping and demolishing, stout mandibles, capable of digging the ground, of pulling down clay partition walls and even of reducing the mason bee's tough cement to powder. The Anthrax, in her final form, has nothing like this. Her mouth is a short, soft proboscis, good at most for soberly licking the sugary exudations of the flowers; her slim legs are so feeble that to move a grain of sand were an excessive task for them, enough to strain every joint; her great, stiff wings, which must remain full spread, do not allow her to slip through ... — The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre Read full book for free!
... which are bringing home honey no longer hang to make it into wax, but begin to store it in the cells. We all know where the bees go to fetch their honey, and how, when a bee settles on a flower, she thrusts into it her small tongue-like proboscis, which is really a lengthened under-lip, and sucks out the drop of honey. This she swallows, passing it down her throat into a honey-bag or first stomach, which lies between her throat and her real stomach, and when she gets back to the hive she can empty this bag and pass ... — The Fairy-Land of Science • Arabella B. Buckley Read full book for free!
... Nearly madden'd For the lack of that which gladden'd His proboscis, was the parson, Hight ... — Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings Read full book for free!
... different but still delightful piece in which Marot is supposed to have commemorated her Platonic graciousness; while her portrait, though drawn in the hard, dry manner of the time, and with the tendency of that time to "make a girl's nose a proboscis," is by no means unsuggestive of actual ... — A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury Read full book for free!
... specific flagellate protozoan (Trypanosoma brucei) in the blood. It is probably transmitted from animal to animal solely by the bites of the tsetse fly. This insect is something like a large house fly, and when it settles on a diseased animal, sucks the blood and infects its proboscis, it is enabled on biting a second animal to infect the latter by direct inoculation. This disease is found throughout a large portion of central and southern Africa, along the low-lying and swampy valleys. It has never occurred in the United States, nor is it known to be present in the Philippines, ... — Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture Read full book for free!
... the back door and got a penny a-piece from the servants, who were quite delighted. Then I met uncle, and telling him that I had a wonderful box of antiques to exhibit, he gave me sixpence, and with great curiosity poked his proboscis against the glass. It was worth something to see him. I at once put a picture of Stonehenge, and afterwards one of Herculaneum into the box, that I had bought on purpose for his benefit. I went through the ... — Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale Read full book for free!
... Tenderly I try to raise these petals, but they resist me and I only succeed in murdering the plant. Fool! Why could I not let these flowers live on the edge of their ditch? There they would have felt the fresh shrivelling of drinking in the sun, a bird would have touched them lightly, the proboscis of the mosquitoes would have sucked up their pollen, and they would have died gently by ... — Romance of the Rabbit • Francis Jammes Read full book for free!
... fly and gnat's proboscis, Throng not the naked beauty! Frogs and crickets in the mosses, Keep ... — The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke Read full book for free!
... returned with him to the King. The Sultan of China looked at him and considered him carefully and lo and behold! he was an ancient man, past his ninetieth year; swart of face, white of beard, and hoar of eyebrows; lop eared and proboscis-nosed,[FN696] with a vacant, silly and conceited expression of countenance. The King laughed at this figure o' fun and said to him, "O Silent Man, I desire thee to tell me somewhat of thy history." Quoth ... — The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton Read full book for free!
... sure no inquisitive shyness or bounce'll Make us "too previous" with our Report, which goes first to the QUEEN and the Privy Council. Some bigwig's motto is, "Say and Seal," but as TUPPER remarked a forefinger laying To the dexter side of a fine proboscis, "Our motto at present is, Seal ... — Punch, or The London Charivari, Volume 101, October 31, 1891 • Various Read full book for free!
... demolishing, stout mandibles, capable of digging the ground, of pulling down clay partition walls and even of reducing the mason bee's tough cement to powder. The Anthrax, in her final form, has nothing like this. Her mouth is a short, soft proboscis, good at most for soberly licking the sugary exudations of the flowers; her slim legs are so feeble that to move a grain of sand were an excessive task for them, enough to strain every joint; her great, stiff wings, which ... — The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre Read full book for free!
... string, And from it, what was tied, soon gave a spring; Broke loose at once, just like a mettled steed, That, having slipt its halter, flies with speed; Against the abbess' nose with force it flew, And spectacles from her proboscis threw. ... — The Tales and Novels, Complete • Jean de La Fontaine Read full book for free!
... crowd, who, avoiding his head and intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with their knives till he died. Another very common mode of sacrifice in the same district was to fasten the victim to the proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved on a stout post, and, as it whirled round, the crowd cut the flesh from the victim while life remained. In some villages Major Campbell found as many as fourteen of these wooden elephants, which had been used at sacrifices. In one district the ... — The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer Read full book for free!
... generous object of Mr., Pitman's flame, who without optical aid, it well might have seemed, nevertheless entirely grasped her—might in fact, all benevolently, have been groping her over as by some huge mild proboscis. She gave Mrs. Brack pleasure in short; and who could say of what other pleasures the poor ... — The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various Read full book for free!
... they visited, I found them after a few days fertilised. (4/6. I should add that this fly apparently did not suck the nectar, but was attracted by the papillae which surround the stigma. Hermann Muller also saw a small bee, an Andrena, which could not reach the nectar, repeatedly inserting its proboscis beneath the stigma, where the papillae are situated; so that these papillae must be in some way attractive to insects. A writer asserts 'Zoologist' volume 3-4 page 1225, that a moth (Plusia) frequently visits the flowers of the pansy. Hive-bees do not ordinarily visit ... — The Effects of Cross & Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom • Charles Darwin Read full book for free!
... habits, that he was permitted to go at large. This huge animal used to walk about the streets in the most quiet and orderly manner, and paid many visits through the city to people who were kind to him. Two cobblers took an ill will to this inoffensive creature, and several times pricked him on the proboscis with their awls. The noble animal did not chastise them in the manner he might have done, and seemed to think they were too contemptible to be angry with them. But he took other means to punish them for their cruelty. He filled his trunk with water of a dirty ... — Stories about Animals: with Pictures to Match • Francis C. Woodworth Read full book for free!
... feeding the poor elephant (who was so barbarously put to death at Exeter 'Change) with potatoes, which he took out of my hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just out of the reach of his proboscis. He leaned against his wooden bar, put out his trunk, and could just touch the potato, but could not pick it up. After several ineffectual efforts, he at last blew the potato against the opposite wall with ... — The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 19, No. 543, Saturday, April 21, 1832. • Various Read full book for free!
... of the De Partibus Aristotle clearly enunciates the principle of the division of labour, afterwards emphasised by H. Milne-Edwards. In some insects, he says, the proboscis combines the functions of a tongue and a sting, in others the tongue and the sting are quite separate. "Now it is better," he goes on, "that one and the same instrument shall not be made to serve several dissimilar ... — Form and Function - A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology • E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell Read full book for free!
... are ineffectually protected by a fold of Russian duck. When you are reading, a mosquito will rarely settle on that portion of your hand which is within range of your eyes, but cunningly stealing by the underside of the book fastens on the wrist or finger, and noiselessly inserts his proboscis there. I have tested the classical expedient recorded by Herodotus, who states that the fishermen inhabiting the fens of Egypt cover their beds with their nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite through linen robes, will ... — Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent Read full book for free!
... lives till doomsday she'll burn a week longer than the whole world!" And Falstaff, cracking a kindred joke on Bardolph's carbuncled nose, avows his opinion that it will serve as a flaming beacon to light lost souls the way to purgatory! Again, seeing a flea on the same flaming proboscis, the doughty knight affirmed it was "a black soul burning in hell fire." In this element of mediaval life, this feature of mediaval literature, a terrible belief lay under the gay raillery. Here is betrayed, on a wide scale, that natural reaction ... — The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger Read full book for free!
... bees. Dissection proves that they have the appropriate organs of generation. They are much larger and stouter than either the queen or workers; although their bodies are not quite so long as that of the queen. They have no sting with which to defend themselves; no proboscis which is suitable for gathering honey from the flowers, and no baskets on their thighs for holding the bee-bread. They are thus physically disqualified for work, even if they were ever so well disposed to it. Their proper office is to impregnate the young ... — Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee - A Bee Keeper's Manual • L. L. Langstroth Read full book for free!
... arrangement—unique among orchids, I believe—will be discovered one day, for purpose there is, no doubt; to judge by analogy, it may be supposed that the insect upon which Onc. serratum depends for fertilization likes to stand upon this ring while thrusting its proboscis into the nectary. The fourth of these fine species, Onc. superbiens, ranks among the grandest of flowers—knowing its own value, it rarely consents to "oblige;" the dusky green sepals are margined with yellow, petals ... — About Orchids - A Chat • Frederick Boyle Read full book for free!
... falling yards loosened a plank or two of one of the cages—a noble lion with flowing mane and glaring eyes burst forth and sprung overboard. At the same instant an elephant had freed himself from the rope which fettered his hind legs. Flourishing his long proboscis he rushed into the midst of the fire, but soon driven back by the heat he retreated to a portion of the foredeck which had not yet ignited, and his death-cry echoed loud and mournfully ... — Hair Breadth Escapes - Perilous incidents in the lives of sailors and travelers - in Japan, Cuba, East Indies, etc., etc. • T. S. Arthur Read full book for free!
... over twenty, lean as his aunt, but small boned and not unshapely. He was not, however, handsome, for he had a pasty, grayish complexion, thin lank hair, almost no beard, and a long nose suggesting a proboscis. His name was Rufius Libo, and he was Nonius Libo's heir. In his favor Nonius made a will a few days before we left Rome, leaving him his entire estate except a jointure to Clatenna, endowments to some municipal institutions in his home towns, legacies to various friends ... — Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White Read full book for free!
... eagerly attentive in his corner of the sofa, heard of the trumpet of the common gnat[2], and of its proboscis, which serves at once for an awl, ... — Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth Read full book for free!
... Sporting the lion romped, and in his paw Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards, Gambled before them; the unwieldy elephant, To make them mirth, used all his might, and wreathed His light proboscis." ... — The Human Side of Animals • Royal Dixon Read full book for free!
... said a strange voice issuing from the darkness, "we shall show you the wonders of the oxy-hydrogen microscope; natural objects magnified five thousand times. Look and behold the proboscis of the common ... — The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage Read full book for free!
... carpet adventurer—an explorer amongst the nerves of moral sensation, to whom the discovery of an untrodden mental tract is a pure delight, and the more delightful the more ephemeral. She flits from guest to guest, shooting out to each a little proboscis, as it were, and happy if its point touches a speck of honey. She gathers from all, and stores the sweet agglomerate, let us hope, to feed upon it in the winter of her life, when the hive of her busy brain shall be ... — At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes Read full book for free!
... greater part of the beetles armed with trunks, and several Carabides, were found there. The ten kinds of Heteromerides, with distorted wings, found here, belong to five new classes: the other Heteromerides consist of a Helops and a black Lytta with red thighs. Of beetles furnished with a proboscis, we met with four kinds of Listroderes, two remarkable Cryptorhynchi, and a few others of the shape of a Rhigus. Lastly are to be noticed, a Lucanus of the form of the femoratus, a large Stenopterus, and a large black Psoa. We found ... — A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26, Vol. 2 • Otto von Kotzebue Read full book for free!
... bands connecting the submentum with the cardo of maxilla (Comst.): the submentum: small cords upon which the base of the proboscis is seated (Say): the anterior part of the genae at the edge of the mouth: the corneous processes to which the muscles flexing the mouth in certain Diptera are attached, and in that sense the palpifer of the maxilla: in Homoptera, ... — Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology • John. B. Smith Read full book for free!
... is receiving the attack of a lion on his arm, covered with a mantle; and then, with a raised sword, cutting at the proboscis of an elephant. I have seen, also, an older specimen, I think, of the same manufacture; the subject being the "Bear and Ragged Staff," on alternate rows, with figures of trumpeters. I know not if this subject is of sufficient ... — Notes & Queries, No. 43, Saturday, August 24, 1850 • Various Read full book for free!
... corridor there while Democrats freed from confinement Came trooping forth from the chamber, dissembling all, as they passed him, Hilarious sentiments painful indeed to observe, and remarking: "O friend and colleague of the Speaker, what ails the unjoyous proboscis?" ... — Shapes of Clay • Ambrose Bierce Read full book for free!
... kindly, and moved on, to give red roses to a bright little tot in a red flannel dressing-gown, who was sitting up in bed, nursing a rubber elephant. He took the roses and said, "Sanks!" very politely, then held them to his pet's gray proboscis. "I's better," he explained, with some condescension. "I don't need 'em, but Nelephant doos. He's a severe case. Doctor ... — Hildegarde's Holiday - a story for girls • Laura E. Richards Read full book for free!
... "Now, indeed, my wonder ceases—Aboukar! Oh the sweet creature! with his pretty lobster eyes, and most awful and portentous proboscis, which seems for all the world like a fine ripe tomato displayed on ... — Gomez Arias - The Moors of the Alpujarras, A Spanish Historical Romance. • Joaquin Telesforo de Trueba y Cosio Read full book for free!
... Mylodon, moreover, was furnished with a long extensile tongue like that of the giraffe, which, by one of those beautiful provisions of nature, thus reaches with the aid of its long neck its leafy food. I may remark, that in Abyssinia the elephant, according to Bruce, when it cannot reach with its proboscis the branches, deeply scores with its tusks the trunk of the tree, up and down and all round, till it is sufficiently weakened to be ... — A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin Read full book for free!
... enlarge the hole sufficiently to let them through. At it he rushed, hitting vigorously at the edge with his mattock. At the very first blow came a splash from the water beneath, but ere he could heave a third, a creature like a tapir, only that the grasping point of its proboscis was hard as the steel of Curdie's hammer, pushed him gently aside, making room for another creature, with a head like a great club, which it began banging upon the floor with terrible force and noise. After about a minute of this battery, the tapir ... — The Princess and the Curdie • George MacDonald Read full book for free!
... replied Glover, tenderly fingering his sore proboscis. "It's been, so to speak, eyelet-holed. I'm glad I hadn't but one. The more noses a feller kerries in battle, the wuss for him. I hope the darned rip'll heal up. I've no 'casion to hev a line rove through it 'n' be towed, ... — Overland • John William De Forest Read full book for free!
... sixteenth century with Spanish fleas, and so brought them to such an astonishing perfection in the administration of slow torture. Breeding, I take it, holds good with fleas as with horses, dogs, etc. Those born of parents with thicker mail, longer springs, harder proboscis, and greater daring in initiative, would doubtless be selected and encouraged, if I may say so, to go farther. It is possible that many famous recantations could be accounted for by this hypothesis. Galileo, for instance, probably had a sensitive epidermis which afforded ... — An Ocean Tramp • William McFee Read full book for free!
... lanky fellow, whose head was nearly half a foot above the rest of the crowd. From the visage of this worthy projected a cocked nose of a very peculiar kind, the nostrils of which appeared to be two round holes passing horizontally, instead of perpendicularly, into his head. Upon this delicious proboscis (which was a sort of mixture between the pug-dog and a Chinese pig), was mounted a pair of silver barnicles, apparently placed there for the purpose of hiding a brace of things more resembling coddled gooseberries than human eyes. That feature which, in men, made as they ought to be, is called a ... — Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 3 • Henry Hunt Read full book for free!
... order. Passing out upon the highroad, we came to the common browsing-patch, the "village-green" of the tales of our youth. Nothing was absent: the shaggy mouse-coloured donkey, nosing the turf with his mild and huge proboscis, the geese, the old woman—THE old woman, in person, with her red cloak and her black bonnet, frilled about the face and double-frilled beside her decent placid cheeks—the towering ploughman with his white smock-frock puckered on chest and back, his short corduroys, his ... — A Passionate Pilgrim • Henry James Read full book for free!
... in moments of leisure. Bets are made, or a pool is formed, and we stretch out our closed fists together and wait. By-and-by a sandfly settles on the back of some one's hand, and proceeds to browse. Once his proboscis is buried in the skin, the hand is opened, and he is caught, for he cannot withdraw his weapon from the now contracted skin. Then the capturer pockets the stakes, and executes the bloodsucker. Such is one of our ... — Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay Read full book for free!
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