Excerpt from Bird BiographiesThe Greek and Roman mythologies abound in allusions to bird-life. It was natural that the powerful eagle should be held sacred to Jupiter, the lordly peacock to Juno, the wise owl to Minerva, the repulsive vulture that haunted battlefields to Mars, the beautiful swan to Apollo, and the cooing dove to Venus.The American Indians regarded birds with great rever ence. Their bird-myths are full of beauty. To them the eagle and the raven were especially sacred.The dove was a cherished symbol of early Christian writers and painters. The pelican, too, was revered, it was the mediaeval symbol of charity. The red breast of the robin was thought to have been caused by a prick of a thorn in Christ's crown as the bird strove to wrench one single thorn away The red crossbill's beak was believed to have been twisted in its attempt to remove the iron nail from Christ's blood-stained hand.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.