Author: Michael McCarthy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Author: Michael McCarthy
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In luminous prose, British writer McCarthy addresses the cultural significance of mitratory songbirds, from nightingales to turtle doves to the European Cuckoo, on the heart and soul....A stunning and profound book that will make readers realize how very much these amazing winged creatures matter. --Colleen Mondor, Booklist

Author: Nick Davies
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620409534
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
A gifted biologist's careful and beguiling study of why cuckoos have got away with tricking other birds into hatching and raising their young for thousands of years. The familiar call of the common cuckoo, “cuck-oo,” has been a harbinger of spring ever since our ancestors walked out of Africa many thousands of years ago. However, for naturalist and scientist Nick Davies, the call is an invitation to solve an enduring puzzle: how does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring? Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts. For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary “arms race” between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. For birding and evolution aficionados, The Cuckoo is a lyrical and scientifically satisfying exploration of one of nature's most astonishing and beautiful adaptations.

Author: Ami Amara
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1847538274
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
SEE BOOK TRAILER: http: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bFV8sG0un

Author: Caroline Overington
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1460713850
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
A compulsively gripping lockdown thriller by the bestselling author of The One Who Got Away On the eve of the global lockdown, Don Barlow opens the door of his old beachside cottage to find a pretty girl with pink-tipped hair, claiming to be his granddaughter. She needs help and has nowhere else to go. He welcomes her in, and so begins a mystery set in unprecedented times: with the virus raging outside their home, the girl cannot be asked to leave, but what does he risk by having her stay? As Don and the girl start to forge a bond, Don's adult daughter has her own suspicions about what the newcomer is after. But, unable to travel, how can she protect Don and discover if the girl really is who she claims to be? 'You won't put The Cuckoo's Cry down. It's an addictive, read-in-one-sitting book with some surprisingly tender moments, a compelling relationship between the two main protagonists, and an unexpected twist at the end.' Better Reading Praise for Caroline Overington: 'Deft, dramatic and psychologically astute' Saturday Age 'Overington keeps you guessing until the last' Daily Telegraph 'Caroline Overington has an ability to home in on the darker, unsettling sides of life, seizing upon topics you might see headlining the news and spinning them into gripping page-turners.' Hannah Richell, Australian Women's Weekly

Author: Cynthia Chris
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789149681
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
An entertaining and wide-ranging romp through the cultural history of a peculiar bird. The cuckoo is peculiar for inspiring such divergent ideas: a symbol of foolishness to both Aristophanes and Cocoa Puffs, a reliable harbinger of spring and the hours of a cuckoo clock, and the source of innumerable innuendos inspired by a habit of laying eggs in others’ nests. In this short, entertaining book, Cynthia Chris explores both the natural and cultural history of the cuckoo as well as the many stories told throughout the centuries about this fascinating bird.

Author: Margaret Thompson
Publisher: Brindle and Glass
ISBN: 1927366305
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In her forties, Livvy Alvarsson hopes to be a bone marrow donor for her much-loved younger brother, Stephen. Instead, she discovers she has no idea who she is. This is the second great loss she has suffered, for eleven years earlier her four-year-old son, Daniel, disappeared. Armed with a few clues from wartime England, she embarks on a search for her birth family. The narrative takes the reader from small-town British Columbia to London, the English countryside, and back. It is a story about loss and grief, and secrets and guilt, but it is also about restoration and balance. As Livvy confides her story to her dying brother, she reveals not only an identity enriched by experience, but also the transcendent importance of family and love. The Cuckoo’s Child is a compelling and remarkable evocation of a woman’s search for her family history.

Author: Naomi Love
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1435713338
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
"Exit The Cuckoo's Court" tackles the stereotype of a single mother entangled in the legal system with a clever stalker. The story follows a dysfunctional couple from childhood, as friends, as a couple and finally as adversaries. Kat's ingenious survival techniques help to shield the children from Hal's games but cannot ensure a future for them in Canada.If you want to know what it is like to be cleverly stalked by a subtle con man, and then to get away, read on.

Author: Jane Dews
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1479704296
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Author: Anthea Halliwell
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448110777
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
For Fidgie, living in pre-war Wales, the long school holiday stretched blissfully ahead. With her new friend Chaz as companion for idyllic summer days by the sea, she was able frequently to escape her edgy mother and her malicious older sister, Cly. Her father, mercifully, was away from home ... Through Fidgie's clear eyes the events of a brief hot spell in August unfold: her family and neighbours become involved in adultery, deception, and other, darker, misdemeanours. The eight-year-old child is an engaging and lively narrator; swept along by her extraordinarily compelling tale, the reader will realise that underlying Fidgie's innocent accounts of family meals, fishing trips round the bay, tree-climbing and playing at May Queens, a very adult sub-text is developing. Its conclusion is both tragic and inevitable. Anthea Halliwell's novel marks the emergence of a delightfully individual voice and a most original storytelling talent.