Stray Feathers From a Bird Man's Desk
Austin L. Rand
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Canadian zoologist, Austin L. Rand, takes a divergence from his scholarly works on ornithology to give us 60 entertaining sketches of bird life and lore from Birds Bathing to Courtship Feeding.
From the author's introduction: "In looking back over the preparation of these sketches I feel as though each evening I'd gathered up the bits and pieces left over from the day's work and fashioned them into designs for my own amusement and the edification of my family. Truly it's as though I'd used stray feathers, fallen from the bird skins I'd handled, and fitted them together into something of wider interest than the original.. . . . This series of articles is intended to be interesting and entertaining." - Summary by Larry Wilson (5 hr 16 min)
Chapters
| Introduction | 6:16 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| Birds Using Tools | 6:37 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Birds as Brigands | 5:15 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Birds Bathing | 5:29 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| How Birds Anoint Their Feathers | 4:33 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Traveling Birds' Nests | 4:56 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Maladaptation in Birds | 5:52 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Feathered Baby Sitters and Co-op Nursery Nests | 4:30 | Read by ChristineO |
| Birds' Nests and Their Soup | 6:29 | Read by docdlmartin |
| Walled Wives of Hornbills | 4:57 | Read by BettyB |
| Buried Eggs and Young | 4:28 | Read by diligentdodo |
| The Snowy Owl as a Trade Index | 3:46 | Read by Phil Schempf |
| Monkey Birds | 4:59 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Bird-Made Incubators | 4:50 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Cormorant Fishing | 5:27 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| The Shrike's Larder | 4:22 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Bird Flavors | 4:05 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| How Many Feathers Has a Bird? | 4:24 | Read by Phil Schempf |
| Last Year's Birds' Nests | 6:45 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Symbiosis—Animals Living in Mixed Households | 5:30 | Read by BettyB |
| Bird Apartment Houses | 8:01 | Read by mleigh |
| Bird Helpers at Nesting Time | 5:06 | Read by BettyB |
| A Name for a Boat | 5:29 | Read by Larry Wilson |
| Weavers and Tailors in the Bird World | 5:34 | Read by mleigh |
| Social Parasites among Birds | 6:03 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Fish Eats Bird! | 3:37 | Read by Lynn Marie |
| Crows Are Smarter Than "Wise" Owls | 4:18 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Tame Wild Birds | 5:23 | Read by docdlmartin |
| Birds as Pilferers | 6:07 | Read by realisticspeakers |
| Hibernation in Birds | 4:29 | Read by realisticspeakers |
| Snakeskins in Birds' Nests | 11:20 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Co-operation by Birds | 7:23 | Read by mleigh |
| Watchdogs at the Nest | 4:14 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Bird Guides to Honey | 3:46 | Read by Craig Abbott |
| Oxpeckers | 4:37 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Wings in Feeding | 7:13 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Instrumental Music of Birds | 5:01 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Conditioning in Birds | 6:42 | Read by Craig Abbott |
| Poisonous Birds | 4:16 | Read by Craig Abbott |
| Kingfishers on the Telephone | 5:53 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| On Identifying Sea Serpents | 7:05 | Read by mleigh |
| Conservation over the Telephone | 5:47 | Read by mleigh |
| Birds Washing Food | 4:07 | Read by mleigh |
| How Animal Voices Sound to Foreign Ears | 4:02 | Read by docdlmartin |
| Sight Identification | 5:45 | Read by BettyB |
| Green Hunting Jays Turn Blue | 4:16 | Read by BettyB |
| How Birds Use Cows as Hunting Dogs | 5:56 | Read by realisticspeakers |
| Early Bird Listing | 4:07 | Read by mleigh |
| Battle of the Sexes and Its Evolutionary Significance | 5:30 | Read by realisticspeakers |
| Water in the Desert | 4:33 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Bird Graveyards | 4:48 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Animal Gardens | 4:07 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Dropping Things | 4:35 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Learning by Birds | 3:49 | Read by Lynn Marie |
| Can Birds Count? | 3:45 | Read by Lynn Marie |
| Courtship Feeding | 3:36 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| They Turned the Tables | 5:22 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Survival of the Unfit | 3:59 | Read by Tom Merritt |
| Dust and Snow Bathing | 3:57 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Decoration in the Home | 4:22 | Read by Jared Shaw |
| Curiosity in Birds | 4:30 | Read by Tom Merritt |