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A bittern is a long-necked species of bird, part of the heron family. Van Cheele keeps a stuffed, or taxidermized, bittern as decoration in his study, showing his interest in nature—or at least his desire to present himself as interested in nature.
Stuffed Bittern Quotes in Gabriel-Ernest
The Gabriel-Ernest quotes below are all either spoken by Stuffed Bittern or refer to Stuffed Bittern. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Gabriel-Ernest
Quotes
He had a stuffed bittern in his study, and knew the names of quite a number of wild flowers, so his aunt had possibly some justification in describing him as a great naturalist. At any rate, he was a great walker. It was his custom to take mental notes of everything he saw during his walks, not so much for the purpose of assisting contemporary science as to provide topics for conversation afterwards. When the bluebells began to show themselves in flower he made a point of informing every one of the fact; the season of the year might have warned his hearers of the likelihood of such an occurrence, but at least they felt that he was being absolutely frank with them.
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