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Quote by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

“Most elegantly finished in all parts, [the hummingbird] is a miniature work of our Great Parent, who seems to have formed it the smallest, and at the same time the most beautiful of the winged species.”

Author

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur was an influential American writer known for his seminal work 'Letters from an American Farmer'. Born on December 31, 1735, in Normandy, France, he immigrated to the United States in 1771. His book offers a profound insight into the lives of American farmers and the social and economic transformations of the late 18th century. more

“Then there is that other appeal, the stronger one, of spending, during certain parts of the year, a ten- or twelve- hour working day with bees, which are, when all is said and done, simply a bunch of bugs. But spending my days in close and intimate contact with creatures who are structured so differently from humans, and who get on with life in such a different way, is like being a visitor in an alien but ineffably engaging world.”

Source: A Country Year: Living the Questions

“Who when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist the gay and exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will associate with these lifeless objects, the ceaseless harsh music of the latter, and the lazy flight of the former - the sure accompaniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics.”

Stills Objects Gay Flight Former Lazy Latter Butterfly Harsh Associates Glowing Cabinets Exotic Examining Lifeless Tropics Cicadas

Book:Journal of Researches Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World: Under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy

Source: Journal of Researches Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World: Under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy

“To those whom the tree, the birds, the wildflowers represent only "locked-up dollars" have never known or really seen these things.”

Known Tree Bird Dollars Locked Locked Up Wildflowers

Author:Edwin Way Teale

“To write honestly and with conviction anything about the migration of birds, one should oneself have migrated. Somehow or other we should dehumanize ourselves, feel the feel of feathers on our body and wind in our wings, and finally know what it is to leave abundance and safety and daylight and yield to a compelling instinct, age-old, seeming at the time quite devoid of reason and object.”