Vogelalbum No. 1 by K. B. Boedijn
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"Vogelalbum No. 1" by K. B. Boedijn is a children's natural history album written in the early 20th century. It offers clear, engaging descriptions of birds’ forms, habits, and habitats from around the world, designed to accompany collectible picture cards. Presented for young readers, it combines straightforward zoology with vivid anecdotes about behavior and human encounters. The opening of the album explains the commission, the reliance on museum specimens and respected ornithological
sources, and the aim: simple, unadorned bird stories for children. It then tours the ratites at Amsterdam’s Artis garden—ostrich, rhea (nandu), emu, cassowary, and kiwi—using them to show why some birds run instead of fly (loose feathers without hooks, a flat breastbone), outline courtship and incubation roles, and note hunting, domestication for feathers, and the kiwi’s precarious status. Next come the swimming specialists: penguins as supreme underwater “fliers,” contrasted with northern auks, murres, and puffins; themes include clumsy movement on land, dense colonies, single-egg care, deep diving, and peril on sheer bird cliffs. Local grebes are shown on Dutch waters—stealthy diving, reed nests, back-brooding chicks—alongside a brief critique of fashion’s toll on their plumage. The narrative widens to great sea-fliers and coastal birds: albatrosses’ tireless soaring, gulls and kittiwakes at roaring rookeries, terns’ poised plunge-diving, and the skimmer’s scissor-like bill sweeping the water at night. It also profiles tropicbirds with streaming tail feathers, gannets that spear into the sea, air-mastering but land-awkward frigatebirds, and pelicans with their throat pouch and a debunked self-wounding legend. The excerpt closes by introducing lamellirostral waterfowl—mergansers and wild ducks—with notes on migration and the traditional Dutch eendekooi method of luring and netting ducks. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Boedijn, K. B. (Karel Bernard), 1893-1964 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Wolff, H. J. |
| Title | Vogelalbum No. 1 |
| Original Publication | Haarlem: N.V. Haarlemsche stoomzeepfabriek "Het Klaverblad", 1923. |
| Credits | The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net/ |
| Language | Dutch |
| LoC Class | QL: Science: Zoology |
| Subject | Birds |
| Subject | Advertising cards -- Netherlands |
| Subject | Het Klaverblad (Firm) -- Collectibles |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78761 |
| Release Date | May 26, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 403 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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