After cleaning the Augean Stables, Eurystheus sent Hercules to defeat the Stymphalian Birds, man-eating birds with beaks of bronze and sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims ; they were sacred to Ares, the god of war.

A Hellenistic literary rendering of a battle with uncanny guardian " birds of Ares " is in Argonautica 1.

There were fantastic flowers without perfume, and gaudy birds without song.

In the jungle, birds were mute, while insects preserved only the monotony of living.

His hands, which had been as quick as a pair of fluttering birds, were now neither active nor really relaxed.

She fell asleep leaning on her hand, hearing the house creaking as though it were a living a private life of its own these two hundred years, hearing the birds rustling in their cages and the occasional whirring of wings as one of them landed on the table and walked across the newspaper to perch in the crook of her arm.

Close to two million game birds were harvested on 1,500 commercial and private shooting preserves, and on State Game Commission-controlled upland game areas during the 1960-61 season.

Wavy lines, feather-like patterns, rosettes of indefinitely floral nature, birds either singly or in stylized rows, animals in solemn frieze bands ( see Plates 11 - 12 ) -- all these turned up in the more developed fabrics as preliminary signs that the potters were broadening their gaze.

Somewhere birds were sweetly calling, were answered.

The birds were really awake now in a colloquy of music, and light was beginning to creep across the room, touching sill and door, table and chair and all of Doaty's flowers in their artificial blossom and leaf.

They were covered with tiny white blossoms, their scant roots clawing at the stony ground, and wild birds darted in and about and through them so they were nearly alive with the rustle and cry.

In feeding trials, fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals were all found to be susceptible.

If the snake were to become scarce, this would affect birds of prey and other predators that feed on it.

In 2009, researchers hypothesized that smooth-edged holes found in the fossil jaws of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs such as Albertosaurus were caused by a parasite similar to Trichomonas gallinae which infects birds.

In this passage Lewis Carroll incorporated references to the original boating expedition of 4 July 1862 during which Alice's Adventures were first told, with Alice as herself, and the others represented by birds: the Lory was Lorina Liddell, the Eaglet was Edith Liddell, the Dodo was Dodgson, and the Duck was Rev.

In this passage Lewis Carroll incorporated references to everyone present on the original boating expedition of July 4, 1862 during which Alice's Adventures were first told, with Alice as herself, and the others represented by birds: the Lory was Lorina Liddell, the Eaglet was Edith Liddell, the Dodo was Lewis Carroll, and the Duck was Rev.

Animal species diversity was also significantly impacted: in one study, a Harvard biologist found 24 species of birds and 5 species of mammals in a sprayed forest, while in two adjacent sections of unsprayed forest there were 145 and 170 species of birds and 30 and 55 species of mammals.

The use of birds was very meaningful to these people because birds were seen as defending animals in the spirit world.

In the Triassic period some groups of archosaurs ( a group that includes the ancestors of crocodiles ) developed bipedalism ; among their descendants the dinosaurs, all the early forms and many later groups were habitual or exclusive bipeds ; the birds descended from one group of exclusively bipedal dinosaurs.

Returning boomerangs were also used as decoy birds of prey, thrown above long grass in order to frighten game birds into flight and into waiting nets.

When Godzilla attacks the facility and feeds off the reactor, he is distracted by a flock of birds, and leaves the facility almost as quickly as he arrived.

One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1 mile ( 1. 5 kilometres ) wide and 300 miles ( 500 kilometres ) long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3. 5 billion birds.

When a flock of this huge a size established itself in an area, the number of local animal predators ( such as wolves, foxes, weasels, and hawks ) was so small compared to the total number of birds that little damage would be inflicted on the flock as a whole.

Neltje Blanchan, in her book Birds That Hunt and Are Hunted documented that over a million birds were exterminated at one time from a single flock.

Adding hens — especially younger birds — to an existing flock can lead to violence and injury.

The shape and behaviour of a flock of birds or school of fish are also good examples.

Spotts had seen a flock of birds fly in a " V " formation and decided that a band could replicate the action in the form of show formations.

Its former numbers are difficult to estimate but one ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, estimated that one flock he observed contained over two billion birds.

Back in New York, George, shown to have been recruited by the Cuckoo, magically releases a flock of birds that give nightmares to the other apartment residents.

In the earliest version of Compert C ( h ) on Culainn (" The Conception of Cú Chulainn "), his mother Deichtine is the daughter and charioteer of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, and accompanies him as he and the nobles of Ulster hunt a flock of magical birds.

As in the previous version, the Ulstermen go hunting a flock of magical birds, are overtaken by a snowstorm and seek shelter in a nearby house.

When a flock of birds descended on Emain Macha and ate all the grass, the Ulstermen decided to hunt them, and they set off after them in their chariots.

As before, a flock of birds came to Emain and led the Ulstermen to Lug's house, but the wife in labour wife was Deichtine.

In another version, Deichtine disappears from Emain Macha, until the nobles of Ulster are led by a flock of magical birds to a house, where they are welcomed by Lugh.

In her sea bird form, she flies with a flock of enchanted birds, with each pair joined together by a silver chain.

Flocking behavior is the behavior exhibited when a group of birds, called a flock, are foraging or in flight.

The result is akin to a flock of birds, a school of fish, or a swarm of insects.

It was a great flock of ravens ( kaǧi ), spirit birds with rainbow plumage of iridescent colors.

It is now believed to have been a flock of birds huddled together in confusion due to the town's newly installed electric street lights.

Especially the southernmost outpost, the lighthouse Långe Jan ( Tall John ) is visited by many birdwatchers every day, as many birds flock here until setting away over the ocean.

Before the conversation goes any further, the plane suddenly hits a flock of birds and nose-dives into a lake, killing the pilot.

The young birds are fed by both parents, and may also be fed by other adults when they have fledged and joined the flock.