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Birds of a feather will gather together. BurtonAnatomy of Melancholy. Pt. III. Sec. I. Memb. 1. Subsect. 2. | 1 |
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. CervantesDon Quixote. Pt. I. Ch. IV. | 2 |
You must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff. CervantesDon Quixote. Pt. I. Ch. IV. | 3 |
Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last. CervantesDon Quixote. Pt. II. Ch. LXXIV. | 4 |
Dame Natures minstrels. Gavin DouglasMorning in May. | 5 |
A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. Ecclesiastes. X. 20. | 6 |
To warm their little loves the birds complain. GraySonnet on the Death of Richard West. | 7 |
A feather in hand is better than a bird in the air. HerbertJacula Prudentum. | 8 |
Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood. HeywoodProverbs. Pt. I. Ch. XI. | 9 |
The nightingale has a lyre of gold, The larks is a clarion call, And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute, But I love him best of all.
For his song is all the joy of life, And we in the mad spring weather, We two have listened till he sang Our hearts and lips together. W. E. HenleyEchoes. | 10 |
When the swallows homeward fly, When the roses scattered lie, When from neither hill or dale, Chants the silvery nightingale: In these words my bleeding heart Would to thee its grief impart; When I thus thy image lose Can I, ah! can I, eer know repose? Karl HerrlossohnWhen the Swallows Homeward Fly. | 11 |
I was always a lover of soft-winged things. Victor HugoI Was Always a Lover. | 12 |
Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno. A rare bird upon the earth, and exceedingly like a black swan. JuvenalSatires. VI. 165. | 13 |
Do you neer think what wondrous beings these? Do you neer think who made them, and who taught The dialect they speak, where melodies Alone are the interpreters of thought? Whose household words are songs in many keys, Sweeter than instrument of man eer caught! LongfellowTales of a Wayside Inn. The Poets Tale. The Birds of Killingworth. | 14 |
That which prevents disagreeable flies from feeding on your repast, was once the proud tail of a splendid bird. MartialEpigrams. Bk. XIV. Ep. 67. | 15 |
Birdes of a feather will flocke togither. Minsheu. (1599). | 16 |
Every bird that upwards swings Bears the Cross upon its wings. Ascribed to John Mason Neale. | 17 |
He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush. PlutarchOf Garrulity. | 18 |
Hear how the birds, on evry blooming spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day! PopePastorals. Spring. L. 23. | 19 |
A little bird told me. King Henry IV. Pt. II. Last lines. See also Mahomets pigeon, the pious lie, Life of Mahomet in Library of Useful Knowledge. Note p. 19. AristophanesAves. See Robinsons Antiquities. Greek, Bk. III. Ch. XV. ad init. Ecclesiastes. X. 20. | 20 |
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That byrd ys nat honest That fylythe hys owne nest. SkeltonPoems against Garnesche. III. | 21 |
The bird That glads the night had cheerd the listening groves with sweet complainings. SomervilleThe Chace. | 22 |
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