Tag: Birds
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Tiresias was a blind prophet who was transformed into a woman for seven years
In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias participated fully in seven generations in Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself. Mythology Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by Luc Brisson, fall into three groups: the first recounts Tiresias’ sex-change episode and later his…
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Caeneus, invincible transman in Greek mythology
In Greek mythology, Caeneus was a Lapith hero of Thessaly. Family According to Book XII of Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, he was originally a woman, Caenis (/ˈsiːnɪs/; Ancient Greek: Καινίς, romanized: Kainís), daughter of Atrax. In Apollonius of Rhodes‘ Argonautica, he is briefly noted as the great father of a lesser son, Coronus, who sailed forth among the Argonauts. Caeneus was also an Argonaut in some versions. The striking mythic image of this hero is that, indomitable through…
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Mews derives from the French muer, ‘to moult’
A mews is a row or courtyard of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above them, built behind large city houses before motor vehicles replaced horses in the early twentieth century. Mews are usually located in desirable residential areas, having been built to cater for the horses, coachmen and stable-servants of prosperous residents. The word mews comes from the Royal Mews in London, England,…
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The syrinx (from the Greek word for pan pipes) is the vocal organ of birds
The syrinx (from the Greek word “σύριγξ” for pan pipes) is the vocal organ of birds. Located at the base of a bird’s trachea, it produces sounds without the vocal folds of mammals. The sound is produced by vibrations of some or all of the membrana tympaniformis (the walls of the syrinx) and the pessulus, caused by air flowing through the syrinx. This sets up a self-oscillating system that modulates…
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Red Horn (Hešucka) aka He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears and Big Boy…and Werebirds
Red Horn is a culture hero in Siouan oral traditions, specifically of the Ioway and Hocąk (Winnebago) nations. He has different names. Only in Hocąk literature is he known as “Red Horn” (Hešucka), but among the Ioway and Hocągara both, he is known by one of his variant names, “He Who Wears (Man) Faces on His Ears”. This name derives from the living faces on…
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Magpie (bird)
Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world’s most intelligent creatures and is one of the few nonmammalian species able to recognize itself in a mirror test. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as…
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Gorget (bird)
A gorget is a patch of colored feathers found on the throat or upper breast of some species of birds. It is a feature found on many male hummingbirds, particularly those found in North America; these gorgets are typically iridescent. Other species, such as the purple-throated fruitcrow and chukar partridge, also show the feature. The term is derived from the gorget used in military armor to protect the throat. Feather…
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Gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat
A gorget, from the French gorge meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman’s neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the throat, a set of pieces of plate armour, or a single piece of plate armour hanging from the neck and covering the throat and chest. Later, particularly from…
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Pterion and Pteron Notes
The pterion is the region where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones join. It is located on the side of the skull, just behind the temple. Structure The pterion is located in the temporal fossa, approximately 2.6 cm behind and 1.3 cm above the posterolateral margin of the frontozygomatic suture. It is the junction between four bones: These bones are typically joined by five cranial sutures: Clinical significance Haematoma…
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Aetokthonotoxin (AETX) aka ‘eagle toxin’ discovered in 2021
Aetokthonotoxin (AETX), colloquially ‘eagle toxin’, was discovered in 2021 as the cyanobacterial neurotoxin causing vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) in eagles in North America. Avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM) is a fatal neurological disease that affects various waterbirds and raptors. It is most common in the bald eagle and American coot, and it is known in the killdeer, bufflehead, northern shoveler, American wigeon, Canada goose, great horned owl, mallard, and ring-necked duck. Avian vacuolar myelinopathy is a newly discovered disease that…
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Divergence and functional degradation of a sex chromosome-like supergene (the sparrow with four sexes)
In January 2016, when the paper was published in Current Biology, it showed unequivocally that chromosome 2 was evolving like a sex chromosome. White–white and tan–tan matings were exceedingly rare. Using the whole-genome sequences of 50 birds, the team demonstrated that the genes in the inversion were acquiring mutations much more quickly than elsewhere in the…
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Another reason not to feed pigeons – your food is poison?
I can’t tell you why except they showed up on a wiki search. Climate change has a negative effect on this bird, and reproductive performance decreases with increased temperatures. It is also particularly vulnerable to oil, and adults near oiled shores display symptoms of hepatocellular injury, where elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase can be found in the liver. Otherwise,…
