[Roger Slater]

Jerome, I realize that there are some colloquial nuances involved, but we're dealing here with poems, and, as I've pointed out, books of "animal poems" typically include poems about insects and birds. This is true of both children's books and adult books. The John Hollander book is an example of the latter. I doubt many people would open his book and say, "What the hell is this poem doing here? It's about an eagle, but an eagle isn't an animal. And why is there a poem about a bee? A bee isn't an animal!"

In the colloquial examples you gave, I think the tendency is to be as specific as possible. If you saw a lot of birds, you'd say "I saw birds." You wouldn't say "I saw animals," but you also wouldn't say "I saw living creatures," though we can both agree that the latter would be perfectly true. I think that if you saw birds, cats, lions and elephants, you'd say "I saw animals," and if someone asked you, "Did you see any animals?", you would answer yes even if all you saw were birds.