urban seagull

Glenancross Gull

2008-11-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

fantastic 16th C. winged being

2008-11-15T12:48:00.001-08:00

Oriental crow feast

2008-11-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

"les neuf aspects de la décomposition d'un corps"

époque Edo (1603-1868)

corvids

2008-11-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

Die Raben Traduction : Les corbeaux

Linogravure

Kandinsky Vassily (1866-1944)

L'Arbre aux oiseaux

2008-11-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

L'Arbre aux oiseaux

Van Kessel Jan I (1626-1679)

The Fox and the Crow, illustration from 'The Fables of Bidpai'

2008-11-15T11:50:00.001-08:00

continuing on a fashion theme.....

2008-11-15T10:57:00.001-08:00

Jean-Jacques Manget
Traité De La Peste. 1721.
Protective clothing for a physician treating someone with plague.

perhaps this was the inspiration for Alexander McQueens stag/bridal wear - as displayed on the catwalk by Aggy.....

2008-11-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

death on the bagpipes......

2008-11-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

again unavain, but you've gotta love the knight's of Malta......

2008-11-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Tombs of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta

Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum

The honorific watercolour/ink/inkwash album featured above was produced in 1781 by Le Bailli de Froullay and Fr. Ludovicus d'Almeyda with the Greek notations by a certain Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is entitled: 'Mausolées des Grans Maîtres de l'Ordre de S. Jean de Jerusalem qui etoitent en Rhodes, tirés des dessins originaux qui existent dans la chancelerie de l'Ordre à Malthe' and is available in html or flash format from La Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence.

Caricature of Harald Ulrik Sverdrup

2008-11-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

Never let it be said that oceanographers don't have a sense of humour. Smoking a penguin?

extra falconry

2008-11-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Konradin von Hohenstaufen

I bought a beautifully illustrated, German King-Penguin book on this ms.from a tiny but amazingly well-stocked second-hand bookshop (or shack) on Skye. The illuminations show the quintessential medieval theme of knights, falconry, courtly love and board games!

OK.. so not entirely bird related but just too good to omit....

2008-11-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

'Turnierbuch. Ritterspiele gehalten von Kaiser Friedrich III. und Kaiser Maximilian I. in den Jahren 1489 - 1511 - BSB Cod.icon. 398' is online at MDZ.

(Tournament book. Knight games held by Emperor Frederick III. Emperor Maximilian I and in the years 1489 to 1511)

ms illuminated in 1550's - genius

pope books

2008-11-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

'Papstprophetien' manuscript (~1464-1471)
Images come from the German National Museum digital collection

beautiful artist book

2008-11-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

'The Owl-phabet of Art'
JoAnna Poehlmann, 1999.

bird related market terms

2008-10-12T02:19:00.000-07:00

An event that is extremely hard to predict. Generally associated with Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book, The Black Swan.

Black swan events are typically random and unexpected, and some think the current financial crisis is a black swan.

Before the discovery of Australia, it was assumed that all swans were white because nobody had seen one of a different shade.

Markets tend to work on the basis that black swans either don't exist or appear with such irregularity that they are not worth worrying about.

swanning aroud

2008-10-12T01:22:00.000-07:00

Here come the gulls!.............

2008-10-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

Pigeon Plot

2008-09-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

British spy chiefs drew up secret plans to use pigeons to spread false rumours about the impending D-Day landings.

The plot in 1943 to drop the birds into German-occupied France is revealed in newly declassified MI5 files released by the National Archives.

Germany had been intercepting pigeons carrying Allied notes, the files say, so MI5 moved to drop false information.

It planned to put extra pigeons over the west coast of France to give the impression the invasion would be there.

The revelations come in newly-released files on World War II called “Channels for deception”.

spoonbills breed in Scotland

2008-09-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Conservationists believe a wading bird rarely spotted in the UK has bred in Scotland for the first time.

Two spoonbills arrived on the Dee Estuary in Kirkcudbright earlier this year and three younger birds have been seen in the past few days.

The RSPB said the species was of European conservation concern and a very rare breeding bird in the UK.

Countryside ranger Keith Kirk said the spoonbills appeared to be flourishing in the conditions in southern Scotland.

Gripe Aviar, No te la juegues................

2008-08-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

knighted King

2008-08-18T01:51:00.000-07:00

A penguin who was previously made a Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Army has been knighted at Edinburgh Zoo.

Penguin Nils Olav has been an honorary member and mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard since 1972.

Over the years, he has been promoted through the ranks after being adopted by Royal Guard who visited the zoo. During the ceremony, Nils had a sword dubbed on each side of his head, where his shoulders should be, to confirm his regimental knighthood.

A crowd of several hundred people joined the 130 guardsmen at the zoo. A citation from King Harald the Fifth of Norway was read out, which described Nils as a penguin "in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood".

The guardsmen come to see Nils every few years while they are in Edinburgh performing at the city's Military Tattoo. The proud penguin was on his best behaviour throughout most of the ceremony, but shortly before the ritual was concluded and possibly suffering a bout of nerves he was seen to deposit a discreet white puddle on the ground.

2008-08-18T01:30:00.000-07:00

canaries in a mine shaft

2008-08-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

A number of UK bird species are laying eggs significantly earlier than they were 40 years ago, a report reveals.

A conservation coalition's report says some finches, robins and tits are all laying earlier and puts this down to warming caused by climate change.

Overall, numbers of farmland birds remain about half of what they were in the 1970s, while wintering populations of water birds have risen considerably.

The RSPB said birds were having to respond to climate change to survive. "As often before, birds are acting like the canaries in a mine shaft and giving us early warning of dangerous change." The report shows that on average, chaffinches are laying nine days earlier than in the 1960s, and robins six days earlier.

In some species, the shift has been shown to be damaging, as it means key foods are no longer available when the youngsters need them.

But in other situations - as documented recently with English great tits - the wildlife appears to cope.

Ancient tree helps birds survive

2008-08-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

Oak Tree in Winter at Lacock Abbey
Salt print from a calotype negative, early 1840s.

Scientists have found an ancient species of tree is helping Britain's birds survive the effects of climate change.

Frequent early spring weather means blue tits and great tits have been laying eggs ahead of schedule, making it difficult for them to find food. However ecologists say birds have been feeding on gall wasps, which make their homes in Turkey oak trees, rather than the usual young caterpillars. The discovery was made during a study by the University of Edinburgh.

It had been feared that the Turkey oak, reintroduced to Britain three centuries ago after an absence of thousands of years, may pose a threat to native plants and animals. The species was native to northern Europe before the previous ice age, about 120,000 years ago. But now it appears to be providing the country's birds with a food source.

"As the Turkey oak re-asserts itself in its ancient home, it is helping to alleviate some of the effects of the very modern problem of climate change."

The Twa Corbies

2008-08-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

Arthur Rackham: "Some British Ballads" (1919)
The Twa Corbies or, The Two Ravens. Two carrion birds sit discussing what they are going to eat for supper, and one mentions a young man, a knight, lying dead nearby, presumably killed by his lover’s new boyfriend.

“As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the tother say,
‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’

‘In behint youn auld fail [turf] dyke,
I wot there lies a new slain knight;
And nae body kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

‘His ound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild fowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet.

‘ye’ll sit on his white hause [neck] bane,
And I’ll pake out his bonny blue een:
Wi’ ae lock o’ his gowden hair,
We’ll theek [thatch] our nest when it grows bare.

‘Many a one for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whare he is gane;
O’er his white bones, when they are bare,
The wind shall blaw for evermair.’ ”

The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers

2008-08-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

Joan Miró. The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers (from the Constellation series). July 23, 1941

The spectacle of the sky overwhelms me. I'm overwhelmed when I see, in an immense sky, the crescent of the moon, or the sun. There, in my pictures, tiny forms in huge empty spaces. Empty spaces, empty horizons, empty plains - everything which is bare has always greatly impressed me.

- Joan Miró, 1958, quoted in Twentieth-Century Artists on Art

This is one of a celebrated group of twenty-four drawings, collectively referred to as the Constellation series, which was executed during a period of personal crisis for Miró triggered by the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Trapped in France from 1936 to 1940, the artist embarked on these obsessively meticulous works on paper in an attempt to commune with nature and escape the tragedies of current events. Despite their modest formats, they represented the most important works of his career up to that time, a fact he quickly realized.

Jan Asselijn's swan

2008-08-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Threatened Swan. Oil painting by Jan Asselijn. 144 x 171 cm. From the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. A larger than life swan lifts itself with threatening, out-stretched wings. Hissing fiercely it defends its nest against the approaching danger: the dog swimming in from the right. The dog seems to have designs on the eggs in the nest. The movement of the swan is extreme; its feathers fly up around it. The painter Jan Asselijn has convincingly depicted this spectacle, it looks just like a swan rising up in sudden anger. Through using a low viewpoint he has made the swan tower above its surroundings. This makes the scene even more impressive.

the art of islamic calligraphy

2008-08-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

table manners of the medieval vulture

2008-08-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 D 7, Folio 39r
According to the bestiary: The vulture follows armies to feed on corpses; it can predict the number that will die in battle. It flies slowly but very high, and can sense corpses across the seas and in high mountains, and can smell carrion three days journey away. When a corpse is found, the vulture first eats the eyes, then pulls the brain out through the eye holes. The females conceive without mating with males. Vultures live one hundred years.

A deadly creature, half human, half bird or fish

2008-08-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 3466 8º, Folio 37r
Siren: see an older post with an image of a mosaic at the Bardo Museum, Tunis. This one just had to be added. The artist has solved the problem of whether a siren should have the lower body of a bird or a fish by giving this siren bird's feet and a fish tail. The text says the siren "has the make of a woman down to the waist, and the feet of a falcon, and the tail of a fish."

Ever seen an owl flying backwards?

2008-08-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 47. A little harsh but according to the bestiary:

The owl haunts ruins and flies only at night; preferring to live in darkness it hides from the light. It is a dirty, slothful bird that pollutes its own nest with its dung. It is often found near tombs and lives in caves. Some say it flies backwards. When other birds see it hiding during the day, they noisily attack it to betray its hiding place. Owls cry out when they sense that someone is about to die.

There are several kinds of owls described in the bestiaries: noctua, the night-owl, that lives in the walls of ruined houses a shuns the light; nictocorax, the night-raven; and the bubo, the common owl, a dirty bird that pollutes its nest.

best perspective for a hawk related picture ....

2008-08-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

British Library, Additional MS 42130, Folio 159r.Pliny says [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 9-10): There are 16 varieties of hawks. They eat other birds, though not the heart. Some catch only birds that are on the ground, others only those flying around a tree, others only birds perched in a tree, still others only those flying in the open. Doves recognize the type of hawks they see, and land of the ground or fly in the air to be counter to the particular hawk's habits, and so save their lives. Hawks are used to assist men in catching birds; the men and the hawks share what they catch.

the coot is cute - no?

2008-08-14T07:15:00.001-07:00

Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, Folio 36r. The coot represents the man who lives according to God's will and remains within the Church, rather than straying down the path of heresy or following worldly pleasures.

Fearsome rooster

2008-08-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 3466 8º, Folio 10r. A white cock facing a lion, which turns away in fear. The cock (rooster) has the intelligence to tell time and so knows when to crow. Just before it crows, it spreads its wings and strikes itself. Some say that cock's limbs are destroyed if they are mixed with liquid gold.

Doves in a peridexion tree

2008-08-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

British Library, Harley MS 3244, Folio 58v. Doves in a peridexion tree, safe from a menacing dragon. The peridexion tree grows in India. Doves gather in the tree because they like the sweet fruit, and because there they are safe from the dragon. The dragon hates the doves and would harm them if it could, but it fears the shadow of the peridexion tree and stays on the unshaded side of it. The doves that stay in the shadow are safe, but any who leave it are caught and eaten by the dragon.

Crane

2008-08-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 39r
Cranes fly in order, with the leader guiding the flock with a shrill voice; when the leader becomes tired or his voice gives out, another takes his place. They fly high in the air so they can see the lands they seek. At night cranes take turns keeping watch for enemies. The one who is on duty holds a stone up with one claw; if the watcher falls asleep the stone will fall and wake him. If the wind is strong cranes swallow sand or carry stones for ballast. Cranes are the enemy of pygmies, with whom they are constantly at war.

Cinnamologus

2008-08-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 31v. The cinnamalogus is a bird that lives in Arabia. It builds its nest using the fruit of the cinnamon tree, which men value greatly. The men who want to cinnamon cannot climb the tree to reach the nest, because the nest is too high and the tree branches too delicate, so they throw lead balls to knock down the cinnamon. Cinnamon obtained from the nest of this bird is the most valuable of all. See Pliny the Elder, Herodotus, Isidore of Seville or Bartholomaeus Anglicus if you don't believe me...

Barnacle geese

2008-08-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 36r - Barnacle geese come from trees that grow over water. These trees produce birds that look like small geese; the young birds hang from their beaks from the trees. When the birds are mature enough, they fall from the trees; any that fall into the water float and are safe, but those that fall on land die.

The Sermon of St. Francis

2008-08-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

Preaching to the Birds. by Giotto di Bondone, 1295-1300. Fresco. St. Francis, Upper Church, Assisi, Italy
Many of the stories that surround the life of St Francis deal with his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates the Saint’s humility towards nature is recounted in the 'Fioretti' (The "Little Flowers"), a collection of legends and folk-lore that sprang up after the Saint’s death. It is said that one day while Francis was traveling with some companions they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to "wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds". The birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew away.

"The Sermon of St. Francis" is a poem written by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). It is part of his collection Birds of Passage. The poem relates the story of a man, Saint Francis, that tries to teach a flock of birds about the wonders of God. The birds flock to Saint Francis's parish every day to ask for food, and it is then that Saint Francis teaches them of these things. Although he does not believe that the birds understand him, Francis is able to bring himself peace by doing this.

look at the puffin!!!!

2008-08-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

Genius tea towel! want one! A fund-raising appeal has been launched for a new bird observatory on Fair Isle, one of the UK's most remote inhabited islands and an Ornithological mecca.

Hundreds of bird watchers travel to the island off Shetland every year to observe migrating birds.

The bird observatory there is known to ornithologists around the world and is famous for its rare bird migrants and spectacular seabirds.

bennu...

2008-08-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

The Bennu bird serves as the Egyptian correspondence to the phoenix, and is said to be the soul of the Sun-God Ra. Some of the titles of the Bennu bird were “He Who Came Into Being by Himself,” “Ascending One,” and “Lord of Jubilees.” The name is related to the verb “weben,” meaning “to rise brilliantly,” or “to shine.” The Bennu bird was the mythological phoenix of Egypt. It was associated with the rising of the Nile, resurrection, and the sun. Because the Bennu represented creation and renewal, it was connected with the Egyptian calendar. Indeed, the Temple of the Bennu was well known for its time-keeping devices.

According to ancient Egyptian myth, the Bennu had created itself from a fire that was burned on a holy tree in one of the sacred precincts of the temple of Ra. Other versions say that the Bennu bird burst forth from the heart of Osiris. The Bennu was supposed to have rested on a sacred pillar that was known as the benben-stone. The Egyptian priests showed this pillar to visitors, who considered it the most holy place on earth.

A large species of heron, nowadays extinct, occurred on the Arabian Peninsula in comparatively recent times; it may have been the ultimate inspiration for the Bennu. Reflecting this, the species was described as Bennu Heron (Ardea bennuides).

Quetzalcoatl

2008-08-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec sky and creator god. The name is a combination of quetzalli, a brightly colored Mesoamerican bird, and coatl, meaning serpent. The name was also taken on by various ancient leaders. Due to their cyclical view of time and the tendency of leaders to revise histories to support their rule, many events and attributes attributed to Quetzalcoatl are exceedingly difficult to separate from the political leaders that took this name on themselves. Quetzalcoatl is often referred to as The Feathered Serpent and was connected to the planet Venus. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge. Today Quetzalcoatl is arguably the best known Aztec deity, and is often thought to have been the principal Aztec god. However, Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli.

Sea Eagles released

2008-08-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

A batch of white tailed sea eagles are being released from a secret location in Fife in a bid to reintroduce the species to the east of Scotland.

The 15 birds of prey were collected as chicks from nests in Norway and raised in special aviaries. The birds will be radio tagged so their progress can be tracked.

It is the second year the East Scotland Sea Eagles (ESSE) project team have released the so-called "flying barn doors" into the wild.

Image : from the Aberdeen Bestiary. f61v Text: the eagle. Illustration: Two panels of eagles fishing and plunging into the renjuvenating spring. The lower section of the illustration is damaged. This is a Physiologus subject. The reference to catching fish means that the bird must be a sea eagle or osprey. The white tailed eagle is found in the Mediterranean. Although this is an original Physiologus subject, the illustrations of this bird are among the most varied, indicating the lack of an accepted common source.

One striking feature is its yellow eye from which it gains a poetic Gaelic name Iolairesuilnagreine ‘the eagle with the sunlit eye’. Its beak and talons are also bright yellow. Pliny the Elder records [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 3-6): The eagle is the strongest and most noble bird. There are six kinds of eagles. Only the sea-eagle forces its unfledged young to look at the rays of the sun; if any of them blinks or has watering eyes, those ones are thrown out of the nest

Simorgh

2008-08-13T13:17:00.001-07:00

The upper image shows Sam finding Zal in the Simourgh's nest and is from the British Library. The image underneath shows the simourgh carrying Zal off to his nest and is a miniature from a 17th C. manuscript. The image is from the Wellcome Library.

Simurgh or Simorgh(Persian: سیمرغ), sometimes spelled Simurg or Simoorg, also known as Angha(Persian: عنقا), is the modern Persian name for a fabulous, mythical flying creature. The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iranian art and literature, and is evident also in the iconography of medieval Armenia, Byzantium.

The Simorgh made its most famous appearance in the Ferdowsi's epic Shahname (Book of Kings), where its involvement with the Prince Zal is described. According to the Shahname, Zal, the son of Saam, was born albino. When Saam saw his albino son, he assumed that the child was the spawn of devils, and abandoned the infant on the mountain Alborz.

The child's cries were carried to the ears of the tender-hearted Simorgh, who lived on top this peak, and she retrieved the child and raised him as her own. Zal was taught much wisdom from the loving Simorgh, who has all knowledge, but the time came when he grew into a man and yearned to rejoin the world of men. Though the Simorgh was terribly saddened, she gifted him with three golden feathers which he was to burn if he ever needed her assistance. Which he did require later in life when his wife almost died in child birth.

Iranian legends consider the bird so old that it had seen the destruction of the World three times over. The Simorgh learned so much by living so long that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all the Ages. In one legend, the Simorgh was said to live 1700 years before plunging itself into flames (much like the phoenix).

The language of the birds......

2008-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

The one-eyed Odin with his ravens Hugin and Munin and his weapons. From the 18th century Icelandic manuscript SAM 66 in the care of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland.

In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom. The god Odin had two ravens, called Hugin and Munin, who flew around the world and told Odin what happened among mortal men.

The legendary king of Sweden Dag the wise was so wise that he could understand what birds said. He had a tame house sparrow which flew around and brought back news to him. Once, a farmer in Reidgotaland killed Dag's sparrow, which brought on a terrible retribution from the Swedes.

The ability could also be acquired by tasting dragon blood. According to the Poetic Edda and the Volsunga saga, Sigurd accidentally tasted dragon blood while roasting the heart of Fafnir. This gave him the ability to understand the language of birds, and his life was saved as the birds were discussing Regin's plans to kill Sigurd. Through the same ability Aslaug, Sigurd's daughter, found out the betrothment of her husband Ragnar Lodbrok, to another woman.

Odin is a god of war, appearing throughout Norse myth as the bringer of victory. In the Norse sagas, Odin sometimes acts as the instigator of wars, and is said to have been able to start wars by simply throwing down his spear Gungnir, and/or sending his valkaries, to influence the battle toward the end that he desires. The Valkyries are Odin's beautiful battle maidens that went out to the fields of war to select and collect the worthy men who died in battle to come and sit at Odin's table in Valhalla, feasting and battling until they had to fight in the final battle, Ragnarok. Odin would also appear on the battle-field, sitting upon his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, with his two ravens, one on each shoulder, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), and two wolves (Geri and Freki) on each side of him.

Odin is also associated with trickery, cunning, and deception. Most sagas have tales of Odin using his cunning to overcome adversaries and achieve his goals, such as swindling the blood of Kvasir from the dwarves.

Conference of the birds

2008-08-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

The Conference of the Birds (Persian: منطق الطیر, Mantiq at-Tayr, 1177) is a book of poems in Persian by Farid ud-Din Attar of approximately 4500 lines. The poem uses a journey by a group of 30 birds, led by a hoopoe as an allegory of a Sufi sheikh or master leading his pupils to enlightenment.

Besides being one of the most beautiful examples of Persian poetry, this book relies on a clever word play between the words Simorgh — a mysterious bird in Iranian mythology which is a symbol often found in sufi literature, and similar to the phoenix bird — and "si morgh" — meaning "thirty birds" in Persian.

Winged map of Asia......

2008-08-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

I found a postcard of this map whilst in Israel. The map shows Asia in the shape of a winged horse. It is taken from Heinrich Bunting's, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Ambrosii Kirchner, Magdeburg, 1594. The Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, was an extremely unusual work relating to the Bible, first published in 1581. In this volume, Bunting rewrote the Bible in the form of a travel account, and illustrated the volume with a series of maps. The book proved popular, and was frequently reprinted, into the seventeenth century. In classical mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse which sprang from the body of the Gorgon Medusa when Perseus cut her head off. He was tamed by Bellerophon with the assistance of the goddess Athena, and featured in a number of Bellerophon's exploits, most particularly when Bellerophon provoked the anger of the gods by trying to ride Pegasus up to Heaven.

Great Northern?

2008-08-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

A favourite, Great Northern? is the twelfth and final completed book of Arthur Ransome's swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1947. In this book, the three families of major characters in the series, the Swallows (the Walker family), the Amazons (the Blackett sisters) and the D's (the two Callums), are all reunited in a book for the first time since Pigeon Post. This book is set in the Outer Hebrides and the two familiar Ransome themes of sailing and ornithology come to the fore......

Phoenix Hall

2008-08-13T03:44:00.000-07:00

The phoenix--the bronze figures at either end of the roof on the Byōdō-in.

This temple was originally built in 998 in the Heian pewriod as a rural villa of Fujiwara no Michinaga, one of the most powerful members of the Fujiwara clan. This villa was changed to a Buddhist temple by Fujiwara no Yorimichi in 1052. The most famous building in the temple is the Phoenix Hall (鳳凰堂 hōō-dō) or the Amida Hall, constructed in 1053. The only remaining original building is the Phoenix Hall, surrounded by a scenic pond; additional buildings making up the compound were burnt down during a civil war in 1336.

The main building in Byōdō-in, the Phoenix Hall consists of a central hall, flanked by twin wing corridors on both sides of the central hall, and a tail corridor. The central hall houses an image of Amida Buddha. The roof of the hall displays statues of The Chinese phoenix, called hōō in Japanese.

The Phoenix Hall, completed in 1053, is the exemplar of Fujiwara Amida halls. It consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial pond. Though its official name is Amida-dō, it began to be called Hōō-dō, or Phoenix Hall, in the beginning of the Edo period. This name is considered to derive both from the building's likeness to a phoenix with outstretched wings and a tail, and the pair of phoenixes adorning the roof.

Photo by a Japanese photographer, from a 1966 portfolio of photos of "The Byodo-in"

One of the first great bird books, 1555

2008-08-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

Belon, Pierre, 1517-1564.
"Ciconia" and "Hemantopus,"
L'histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions; & nafs portraicts retirez du naturel: escrit en sept livres.
Paris: G. Cavellat, 1555. From the library of J. van den Heuven, 1820.
--the French naturalist Pierre Belon studied medicine at Paris and botany at Wittenberg, before extensive travels in Greece and the Middle East. His interest in comparative anatomy also led to a parallel volume on fishes. Belon drew moral lessons from the behavior he observed, and the white stork (Ciconia) is depicted here holding food for its young. The woodcut illustrations to Belon's book were made by C.L. Gourdet from drawings by P. Gourdet. See further down for comparative anatomy.

Aldrovandi's Ornithology

2008-08-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 1522-1605? "Grus balearica plinii" and "Grus balearica foemina," in vol. II, lib. XX, Ulyssis Aldrovandi . . . Ornithologi, hoc est de avibus histori, libri XII. 3 vols. Bononi: Ex Camerali Typographia Manolessiana, 1600-1681 (imprint varies; vol. 2, 1645).The Italian scholar Ulisse Aldrovandi was a professor at Bologna, and his three volumes on birds (1599) and his volume on insects (1602) were meant to be the initial installments of a comprehensive work on natural history, compiled from classical and published sources as well as from actual specimens. The illustrations (shown here are two cranes) were prepared by professional artists, not by Aldrovandi himself.

Magpie - myth

2008-08-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

Magpies seem to be jacks of all trades - scavengers, predators and pest-destroyers, their challenging, almost arrogant attitude has won them few friends. With its noisy chattering, black-and-white plumage and long tail, there is nothing else quite like the magpie in the UK. When seen close-up its black plumage takes on an altogether more colourful hue with a purplish-blue iridescent sheen to the wing feathers, and a green gloss to the tail. Non-breeding birds will gather together in flocks. The Magpie is common in European folklore, with multiple superstitions surrounding it. Generally speaking, the bird is associated with unhappiness and trouble. This may be because of its well known tendency to "steal" shiny objects, as well as its harsh, chittering call. In Scotland the magpie was once believed to carry a drop of the Devil's blood under its tongue which perhaps stems from another belief that the magpie was the only bird not to wear full mourning at the Crucifixion. One seen flying or croaking around a house or sitting alone symbolizes that misfortune is present. Should a flock of magpies suddenly abandon a nesting area then, like the crow and rook, death is present and hard times are ahead. To avoid bad luck it is said that taking your hat off to the passing birds will act as protection against darker forces. Perhaps these associations stem from the fact that it was the only bird that would not enter the Ark preferring to stay outside. In China, instead of being a sign of unfortunateness, European magpie is considered to be a lucky sign. The name is literally "happiness magpie."（喜鹊）

B The Magpie - the best record cover?

2008-08-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Pekka Pohjola
title: B The Magpie
label: Virgin
country: UK
date: 1975
Debut solo album from the bassist of Finnish band Wigwam. The music is very inventive and varied, melding jazz as much as progressive rock into the mix. Unique......

Unlikely comaprative anatomy

2008-08-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating and unlikely woodcut illustration in a book by Pierre Belon, a pioneer of comparative anatomy and one of the first naturalist-explorers!

Comparison of a human and bird skeleton, woodcut, 1555

L’histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naifs portraicts. (The history and nature of birds) par Pierre Belon du Mans published in 1555.

The book itself is a remarkable achievement, it was published in French at a time when most books were in Latin and it contains 14 woodcuts depicting a variety of birds, these were based on specimens collected by Belon from markets throughout Europe. He also travelled in the Near East collecting specimens and information.

Early toothed bird....

2008-08-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

SKELETON OF BIRD OF THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD.

Pelican in piety

2008-08-07T02:47:00.000-07:00

In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. As a result, the pelican became a symbol of the Passion of Jesus and of the Eucharist. It also became a symbol in bestiaries for self-sacrifice, and was used in heraldry ("a pelican in her piety" or "a pelican vulning (wounding) herself"). Another version of this is that the pelican used to kill its young and then resurrect them with its blood, this being analogous to the sacrifice of Jesus. These legends may have arisen because the pelican used to suffer from a disease that left a red mark on its chest. Alternatively it may be that pelicans look as if they are stabbing themselves as they often press their bill into their chest to fully empty their pouch. Yet other possibilities are that they often rest their bills on their breasts, and that the Dalmatian Pelican has a blood-red pouch in the early breeding season.

Étienne-Jules Marey (1830 - 1904)

2008-08-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

Étienne-Jules Marey (1830 - 1904) : During the 1860s Marey threw himself into the study of flight, first of insects and then birds. His aim was to understand how a wing interacted with the air to cause the animal to move.Using his chronophotographic cameras, first with glass plates and then with celluloid film, Marey succeeded in photographing the different phases of the flight of birds - seagulls, pigeons, herons and so on. The results, when compared with the graphs he had previously obtained, allowed Marey to publish a substantial volume entitled Le Vol des Oiseaux ("The Flight of Birds") in 1890. Alongside the plates and films, and with Georges Demenÿ's assistance, Marey once again produced sets of magnificent drawings. Better still, in 1887 he created a number of bronze and plaster sculptures which were truly kinetic works of art. His intellectual project therefore consisted of five successive steps: 1) Chronophotographic and/or graphical analysis of the flying bird; 2) A drawing or sketch based on this record; 3) Formation of sculptures to synthesise the analysed movement; 4) "Reanimation" of the sculptures by arranging them in a zoetrope; and 5) Scientific commentary by publication of books and papers.

Owl hunt?

2008-08-07T01:48:00.000-07:00

Highly decorated text, including border decoration of a centaur shooting at an owl and a hunter with his dog catching rabbits. It also shows a heron holding a snake in it's beak. A beautiful page from a mid-13th century Haggadah from Catalonia at the University of Manchester's Rylands Library. The Haggadah (Hebrew: הגדה) is a Jewish religious text that sets out the order of the Passover Seder. Haggadah, meaning "telling," is a fulfillment of the scriptural commandment to each Jew to "tell your son" about the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt, as described in the book of Exodus in the Torah.

Falcon currency..

2008-08-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

A falcon perches on the arm, shoulder and head of its keeper. Falconry was a popular sport among the high officials in the Middle East, and many employed a falcon-master as part of their household.

In medieval times Falcons were so highly valued that they were worth more than their weight in gold when used as coinage in ransom negotiations. During one particularly bloody crusade in the late fourteenth century, the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid captured the son of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and turned down Philip's offer of 200,000 gold ducats for ransom. Instead, Beyazid wanted and was given something even more precious: twelve white gyrfalcons.

The birds were also used as offerings of peace. In 1276, the king of Norway sent eight gray and three white gyrfalcons to Edward I as a sign of peace. Three hundred years later, in 1552, Czar Ivan IV and Queen Mary I exchanged a gyrfalcon and a pair of lions after Russia and England established diplomatic relations.

Decline of puffin population is blamed on fish dearth in North Sea

2008-08-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

An unexpected decline in puffin numbers on one of their most successful breeding colonies has raised fears that the birds are the victims of a North Sea fish famine.

To the puzzlement of ornithologists, thousands of puffins have vanished from the Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, in Scotland.

The population on May had been rising steadily for the past 50 years and ornithologists had expected that the island would host 100,000 pairs this year. But when they carried out five-yearly count in April they discovered that the population had dropped from 69,300 pairs in 2003 to 41,000 this year.

Mike Harris, of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), said that the most likely explanation for the drop was that the adult birds were starving to death during the winter.

Gaelic: capull coille - "horse of the woods"

2008-08-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Walter Heubach (German, 1865–1923).

The capercaillie is one of three bird species that is restricted to pinewood habitat in northern Scotland (the other two are the crested tit, Parus cristatus, and the Scottish crossbill, Loxia scotia). It prefers old, open pine forests with lush ericaceous ground cover, though in summer it is occasionally found in mature oakwoods.

Today all the capercaillie in Scotland originate from Swedish stock, as they became extinct in Scotland in 1785. Prior to its extinction, it was once common and widespread, but as the forests were felled it became rare until the last pair were shot, reputedly for a royal wedding banquet at Balmoral. Unsuccessful attempts were made to reintroduce the capercaillie for sport by the Earl of Fife at Mar Lodge early in the nineteenth century. In 1837, however, capercaillie were successfully reintroduced by Lord Breadalbane at Taymouth Castle and they rapidly recolonised the local pinewoods. Soon other reintroductions were made in various pinewood localities in Scotland, using descendants of the original Taymouth introductees, combined with additional capercaillie brought from Scandinavia.

Unfortunately today capercaillie are once again facing a crisis. Recent figures from the RSPB/Scottish Natural Heritage joint survey indicate that Scottish capercaillie numbers have declined to around 1,000 individuals, a halving of the population in the last five years.

Plumes. Illustré par Adolphe Millot (Larousse pour tous, [1907-1910])

2008-08-06T01:51:00.001-07:00

Claude Augé (dir.) ; Adolphe Millot (ill.), Le Larousse pour tous : Nouveau dictionnaire encyclopédique, vol.2, Librairie Larousse, Paris, [1907-1910], p.465. 1907-1910. Adolphe Millot (ill.); Gothance 14:26, 3 December 2007 (UTC) (scanné par)

2008-08-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Drawn by G Edwards (after Mark Catesby), engraved by IM Seligman, JS Leitner et al. Available from the Botanicus website (there are three 'sets' of illustrations: general birds, parrots and animals; easily found from the drop-down menu in the margin).

J.M. van de Wall, De valkerij op het Loo. Haarlem, 1986. P. 64. Shelf mark: 552 B18.

2008-08-05T08:31:00.001-07:00

Falconry has its own language, much of which is universal. A young hawk taken from a nest in the wild or bred in captivity is known as an eyas. A hawk trapped during its first year in the wild is called a passager, and a hawk trapped in its adult plumage is termed a haggard. The female peregrine falcon is properly called a falcon, and the male—which, in common with most species of raptors, is smaller than the female—is known as a tiercel. Indoor housing for hawks is called a mews. The falconer's equipment is known as items of furniture. Examples include leather gloves, worn to protect the falconer from the hawk's talons, and hoods, used to cover the eyes of the hawk. (Longwings are trained to take, or wear, a hood from the outset of training because their quarry includes other birds in flight and, if a trained longwing is carried bareheaded, it can see other birds passing overhead at any time and waste energy attempting to leave the fist of the falconer in order to pursue them. Some falconers also prefer to train their shortwings and broadwings to take a hood for the convenience of being able to blindfold the hawk in an environment where it might otherwise be nervous.) Jesses are leather straps of equal length, fastened around the legs of a hawk to enable the falconer to retain it on the gloved fist. These straps allow for control of the hawk before it is fully trained or away from the hunting ground by permitting the falconer to choose when the hawk is to be released—for example, when suitable quarry has been sighted—and when it is to stay on the glove.

Guillaume Tardif: Art of Falconry manuscript France: c. 1494 Sp Coll MS Hunter 269

2008-08-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

The art of falconry has its origins in antiquity. For the medieval aristocracy, hunting with hounds or hawks was a consuming passion. A large literature of detailed, formal handbooks describing the procedures and rituals of hunting existed from the Thirteenth Century onwards. This manuscript compilation on the arts of hawking and the chase is a late example, commissioned by Charles VIII of France in around 1494. Beautifully written and magnificently illustrated throughout by lifelike pictures of birds, this manuscript demonstrates the perfection of book design achieved in France in the late Fifteenth Century.

The pages shown here are from the falconry part of the work; this includes a section that describes the signs of health and sickness in birds of prey. Hawks were prone to endless ailments and much of the falconer’s skill lay in maintaining the condition of the birds. Descriptions of ailments and medications usually form substantial sections of the medieval treatises on the art.

An Eagle for an Emperor .............,

2008-08-05T01:09:00.000-07:00

a Gyrfalcon for a King,
a Peregrine for a Prince,
a Saker for a Knight,
a Merlin for a Lady,
a Goshawk for a Yeoman,
a Sparrowhawk for a Priest,
a Musket for a Holy water Clerk,
a Kestrel for a Knave..............

Selected from the Boke of St Albans, 1486, and a Harleian manuscript.
Published in a Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines.

angry bird

2008-08-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Tom? You know what they used to call Alcatraz in the old days? What? Bird Island.

2008-08-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

I don't knit - but if I did...........

2008-08-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in deepest, darkest England lurks the Knitted Garden - A life sized 4.5m by 3m/ 15ft by 10ft woollen garden. It took 300 people to knit the 4 million individual stitches, using 80km (50 miles) of wool!

"Without the shitting duck, we would have nothing to remind us of the glory of France."

2008-08-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Canard Digerateur, or Digesting Duck, was an automaton in the form of a duck, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739. The mechanical duck appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolise and defecate them. While the duck did not actually have the ability to do this - the food was collected in one inner container, and the feces being 'produced' from a second, so that no actual digestion took place - Vaucanson hoped that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.

Good old Voltaire wrote that "without [...] the duck of Vaucanson, you have nothing to remind you of the glory of France." ("Sans...le canard de Vaucanson vous n'auriez rien qui fit ressouvenir de la gloire de la France.") This is often misquoted as "Without the shitting duck, we would have nothing to remind us of the glory of France."

The Automata

2008-08-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

This page is from a dispersed copy of a manuscript, dated 1315, of al-Jazari's Kitab fi ma^crifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, also known as The Automata). The various elements that compose this clock move and make a sound every half hour. This device is reminiscent of the elaborate clocks found on medieval town halls in Europe, which made the passage of time more entertaining with the performance of the moving figures. The elephant clock described by Al-Jazari in 1206 is notable for several innovations. It was the first clock in which an automaton reacted after certain intervals of time (in this case, a humanoid robot striking the cymbal and a mechanical robotic bird chirping) and the first water clock to accurately record the passage of the temporal hours to match the uneven length of days throughout the year. al-jazari (1136-1206) (Arabic: أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري) was an important Muslim scholar, artist, astronomer, craftsman, inventor, mechanical engineer from al-jazira, Mesopotamia who flourished during the Islamic Golden Age (Middle Ages). He is best known for writing this, the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206, where he described fifty mechanical devices. He also devised a "peacock fountain" was a more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows:

"Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure — with a towel!"

Egret's arrive

2008-08-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

The little egret is a small white heron with attractive white plumes on crest, back and chest, black legs and bill and yellow feet. It first appeared in the UK in significant numbers in 1989 and first bred in Dorset in 1996. Its colonization followed naturally from a range expansion intro western and northern France in previous decades. It is now at home on numerous south coast sites, both as a breeding species and as a winter visitor. It is included on the Amber List as rare breeding species. A recent colonist, it is most commonly found along the south coast, and on parts of the east coast. The estuaries of south Devon and Cornwall; Poole Harbour and Chichester Harbour hold some of the largest concentrations and birds can be seen right round to North Norfolk.

more seagullibility - ring species

2008-08-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

A ring species is a situation in which two populations which do not interbreed are living in the same region and connected by a geographic ring of populations that can interbreed. Famous examples of ring species are the herring and lesser black-backed gulls in northern Europe and the Ensatina salamanders of California.

A ring species can be best imagined like this: Consider a species that is geographically distributed in a straight line from east to west across America: it is possible that the forms in the east and west are so different that they could not interbreed. Now imagine taking the line and bending it into a circle, such that the end points (formerly in the east and west) come to overlap in space.

If they do not interbreed then the geographic distribution of the species will be in the shape of a ring, and they will be 'ring species': the extreme forms do not interbreed in the region of overlap. A ring species has an almost continuous set of intermediates between two distinct species, and these intermediates happen to be arranged in a ring. At most points in the ring, there is only one species; but there are two where the end-points meet. The image above is of the herring and lesser black-backed gulls in northern Europe: while they are two reproductively isolated species, there is a continuous set of interbreeding forms between them.

Sirens

2008-08-01T01:41:00.000-07:00

This image is of a mosaic we took in the Bardo Museum, Tunis last year. The image shows a ship forced to come close to land due to a storm. It depicts a scene from Homer's Odyssey where Odysseus sails past an island with sirens. Yet he is tied to the mast to avoid the temptation of their magical songs. In Greek Mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirḗn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirênes) were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses, who lived on an island called Sirenum scopuli. Seamen who sailed near were decoyed by the Sirens' enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast. Although they lured mariners, the sirens were not sea deities. Sirens, like harpies, partake of women and of birds, in various ways. In early Greek art sirens were represented as birds with large women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, with or without wings playing a variety of musical instruments, especially harps. The tenth century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda says that from their chests up Sirens had the form of sparrows, below they were women, or, alternatively, that they were little birds with women's faces. Birds were chosen because of their characteristic, beautiful voices.

The Threatening Notice

2008-08-01T01:25:00.000-07:00

Punch, Volume 48, February 18, 1865, p. 67

Throughout the Civil War, Confederate agents and sympathizers hatched various plots to enter the Northern states across the Canadian border, for purposes ranging from arson to sabotage to freeing Rebel soldiers held in Union prison camps. As the South's fortunes grew more desperate, attempts were actually made to carry out some of these schemes. In October, 1864, a Confederate raiding party which had assembled in Canada attacked the town of St. Albans in Vermont, where they terrorized citizens, robbed three banks, and attempted to set buildings on fire. After shooting several civilians, one of whom died, the raiders fled back across the border. Although some were arrested by local authorities, British and Canadian officials refused to extradite them for trial in the United States. All were subsequently set free by a Canadian judge.

Reacting to such provocations, Secretary of State Seward in late 1864 gave the requisite six-months' notice that the United States intended to abrogate the Rush-Bagot Convention. This agreement, originally negotiated in 1817 and ratified by the Senate in the following year, had for decades provided for the disarmament of the lengthy U.S.-Canadian border. Many in Canada and Britain were alarmed, seeing Seward's move as a preliminary step towards a possible American invasion. But Lincoln's counsel of "one war at a time" remained the government's policy. The threatened abrogation never came before the Senate, and the proposal was allowed to lapse at the end of the Civil War in 1865. In retrospect, Seward's notification was probably intended only as an expression of the Federal government's frustration at Canada's seeming inability to prevent Confederate belligerents from operating out of its territory.

In this odd scene, "Uncle Sam" is personified as a huge, glowering American eagle, dressed in stars-and-stripes clothing similar to that worn by Lincoln in previous cartoons. The President, in contrast, appears reasonably neat and properly dressed in a manner befitting a small-town lawyer. In avoiding his usual caricature, Tenniel seems to present a more sympathetic view of Lincoln as a prudent, reasoned voice for moderation, holding firm against extremists within his own government. John Teeial was also the illustrator for Alice's adventures in wonderland.

Have you ever seen so many gulls? What do you suppose it is? Well, there must be a storm at sea, that can drive them ...................

2008-08-01T01:16:00.000-07:00

Remarkable bird, the Great Toothed Diver, beautiful plumage!

2008-07-31T06:56:00.001-07:00

No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.

2008-07-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Though most scientists contend there is no doubt that moa are extinct, there has been occasional speculation—since at least the late 1800s, and recently as 2008 that some moa may still exist, particularly in deepest south Westland, a rugged wilderness in the South Island. Cryptozoologists and others reputedly continue to search for them, but their claims and supporting evidence (such as of purported Moa footprints or blurry photos) have earned little attention from mainstream experts, and are widely considered pseudoscientific.

Experts contend that moa survival is extremely unlikely, since this would involve the ground-dwelling birds living unnoticed in a region visited often by hunters and hikers.

While the rediscovery of the Takahē in 1948 (after none had been seen since 1898), showed that rare birds may exist undiscovered for a long time, the Takahē was rediscovered after its tracks were identified—yet no reliable evidence of moa tracks has ever been found.

Roc or rukh (from Persian رخ rokh) & Roll

2008-07-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

The roc had its origins, according to Rudolph Wittkower, in the fight between the Indian solar bird Garuda and the chthonic serpent Naga, a word that A. de Gubernatis asserted signified 'elephant' as well as 'snake'. The mytheme of Garuda carrying off an elephant that was battling a tortoise appears in two Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The roc appears in Arabic geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors' folklore. Ibn Battuta tells of a mountain hovering in air over the China Seas, which was the roc. In the 13th century Marco Polo states "It was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its quills were twelve paces long and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure". Marco Polo explicitly distinguishes the bird from a griffin. The legend of the roc, popularized in the West in the travels and Marco Polo and later in the 1001 Nights tales, of Abd al-Rahman and Sinbad the Sailor, was widespread in the East. Through the sixteenth century the existence of the roc was accepted by Europeans. In 1604 Michael Drayton envisaged the rocs being taken aboard the Ark.

bird books - publishers: penguin, pelican, puffin, king penguin, phoenix, black swan, etc etc........

2008-07-31T03:35:00.001-07:00

Why so many birds - eh? (answers on a postcard)

bird brain

2008-07-31T01:45:00.000-07:00

Samuel Collins (1619–1670) was a British doctor and author. He is most notable for being personal physician to Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, during which time he wrote the book The Present State of Russia.

leggy

2008-07-31T01:27:00.000-07:00

Meret Oppenheim's 1939 Table with Bird's Legs. The surface of this table is marked with small bird tracks and supported on the legs of something of ostrichy proportions. Curators suggest that "together these evoke the protective relationship of mother and chick, but perhaps also the more disturbing idea of predator and prey."This was the last piece Oppenheim exhibited in Paris before the war. It points to the organic base of much of her work, as she often linked natural images, such as a bird, to typical, functional man-made objects, such as a table.

Crazy imaginary journies.......

2008-07-31T01:13:00.000-07:00

Gratuitous use of a great image. Perhaps the greatest visionary of techno-anthropormorphic human flight was Cyrano de Bergaerac. Before he was the object of Edmund Rostand’s 1897 play, de Bergerac was a massively creative author, producing, among other things, the book Histoire des Etats et Empires de la Lune (History of the States and Empires of the Moon, published posthumously in 1657), followed by Histoire des Etats et Empires du Soleil (History of the States and Empires of the Sun). In a very complicated series of adventures the protagonists are brought to the moon and to the other side of the sun and such by being flown in a basket attached to the neck of a giant bird. (In one part of the escapade, Cyrano takes us to the moon, which is a paradise, where the adventurer is captured and imprisoned by the intelligent indigenous folks, and from which he escapes by clinging to a soul being removed by the devil).

Villard de Honnecourt

2008-07-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

Villard de Honnecourt, (born c. 1225, Picardy, France — died c. 1250) was a French architect. He is remembered mainly for the sketchbook he compiled while travelling in search of work as a master mason. The book contains sketches and writings concerning architectural practices of the time. He includes sections on technical procedures and mechanical devices, as well as notes on the buildings and monuments he had seen, offering insights into the variety of interests and work of the 13th-century master mason and providing an explanation for the spread of Gothic architecture in Europe. This page from his his surviving portfolio of 33 sheets containing about 250 drawings from about the 1230s, which is in the Bibliotheque National, Paris (MS Fr 19093), shows a pelican in her piety, a curious looking owl and a magpie?

Oh yes, the, uh, the Great Auk...What's,uh...What's wrong with it? I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead,

2008-07-31T00:43:00.001-07:00

Related to the puffin the Great Auk inhabited the rocky coasts and islands of the North Atlantic from Virginia, Scotland, Shetland and Ireland to Greenland and Iceland, almost to the Arctic Circle.

Lets hear it for Horus & and his fight for sunshine...

2008-07-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

It is nearly impossible to distinguish a "true" Horus from all his many forms. In fact, Horus is mostly a general term for a great number of falcon gods, some of which were worshipped all over Egypt, others simply had local cults. Yet in all of his forms he is regarded as the prince of the gods and the specific patron of the living ruler.

The worship of Horus was brought from the outside by neighboring tribes who invaded and then settled into Egypt. He was their god of war, but was quickly absorbed into the state religion, first as a son of Ra, then changing to become the son of Osiris. He was the protector and guide to the pharaoh and later pharaohs were believed to be his avatar on earth. Horus was also the patron of young men and the ideal of the dutiful son who grows up to become a just man.

The most popular story of Horus is the one in which he grows to manhood to avenge the death of his father Osiris by battling against his cruel uncle Set. In many writings, he is said to continue to battle Set daily to ensure the safety of the world. This is a pic of Horus at Edfu. God of the noontime sun. This particular variant was first worshipped in the western Delta and spread south, a cult center being established at Edfu. He is represented by a winged sun or as a lion with the head of a hawk. Horus Behudety fights constantly against Set and an army of darkness to ensure that the sun rises each day.

"winners of numerous cups and prizes......"

2008-07-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Illustrated Book of Poultry by Lewis Wright, published in London, Paris and Melbourne, 1890. This series of poultry lithographs, popularly known as Cassell's Book of Poultry, has a text by Lewis Wright, illustrations by Ludlow and lithographs by Vincent Brooks Day & Son. Now aren't these a particularly fine pair? Gentlemen and women competed fiercely in raising prize winning poultry which were entered in local and regional fairs. This series, which is widely regarded as the most desirable of the English poultry books contains beautifully lithographed examples of the purebred fowl praising the owner, by listing, and where appropriate, the cup or ribbon won. The English name of these birds is a misnomer, as they do not originate in the country of Poland. Instead, the oldest accounts of crested chickens comes from the Netherlands .

Owls in a cave.........

2008-07-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here is another beautiful arabic ilumination; 'Abd Allah Ibn al-Muqaffa' Syria or Egypt mid-14th century. It appears to show a murder of crows flocking around the burning entrance to a cave. Huddled within the cave appear to be a parliament of owls.......

snakes & a flame.......

2008-07-30T04:30:00.000-07:00

The 'Kitab al-Bulhan' (Book of Wonders) [MS. Bodl. Or. 133] manuscript is a collection of Arabic divinatory treatises produced in the late 14th century hosted by the Oxford Digital Library.There are approximately 80 illustrations among the astrological, astronomical and geomantic texts in the ~180pp manuscript. Many of the pages without illustrations have patterned arrangements of the text. This is at first glance a truly bonkers manuscript, of which I have only chosen to show two bird related images; birds swooping down on some snakes in a cave, whist carrying small red pouches in their beaks. One small snake is escaping out of the front of the cave. The second image shows a rock consumed in snake-like fire, whilst a number of birds perch on the rock. A seagull like bird is caught in a flame as it flies in the top left of the picture...........

early bird book

2008-07-30T03:15:00.000-07:00

Spätgotisches Musterbuch des Stephan Schriber - BSB Cod.icon. 420

Stephan Schreiber's late gothic pattern book was produced in Urach in the (now) state of Baden-Württemberg in South-West Germany in 1494. It was dedicated to Count Eberhard (Eberhard the bearded, later first Duke) of Württemberg.

The parchment manuscript appears to be a manual of templates and/or a practice book containing partially completed sketches, painted and calligraphy initals, stylised floral decorative motifs, plant foliage tendrils, fantastic beast border drolleries, together with some gold and silver illumination work.

http://mdzx.bib-bvb.de/codicon/Blatt_bsb00019746,00007.html?prozent=1

Probably the earliest drawings of a dodo (Raphus cucullatus) from the Journal of VOC-ship Gelderland 1601- 1603

2008-07-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead squirrels. Stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry sir, only one carrion allowed!"

2008-07-30T02:13:00.000-07:00

"where there is a carcass, there will be vultures,"
Malayan proverb

Not so now. A catastrophic decline in the number of Asian vultures due to the continued use of drugs in livestock means the noble, if picky, birds could be extinct within a decade. Vultures have an important ecological role in the Asian environment, where they have been relied upon for millennia to clean up and remove dead livestock and even human corpses. But their once-abundant numbers have been in decline for more than a decade. In 1999, the Bombay Natural History Society noted a 97% drop in the Oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) population at the Keoladeo National Park in the state of Rajasthan. Today the bird is considered to be "critically endangered", as are long-billed (Gyps indicus) and slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris) vultures which have been through a similar decline. The livestock painkiller diclofenac, consumed by vultures when they eat a carcass, has been blamed for the fall, in conjunction with other contributing factors such as the growth of city living. Studies in India, Pakistan and Nepal have found extensive evidence of diclofenac in dead vultures. The renowned ornithologist, Dr. Salim Ali in The Book of Indian Birds described vultures as God's own incinerators, which cannot be replaced by even the most sophisticated ones which man may invent. (pic above I took in Orcha, Northern India last summer. A large colony of vultures were nesting on some tombs), (the collective noun for vultures is colony although something more gruesome like a murder would sound more appropriate).

Kraunchas - a bird bereaved....?

2008-07-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Phnom Phen, Cambodia
The Royal Palace

Birds in the murals depicting the Ramayana epos.

Strength in numbers

2008-07-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Bird flocking is a striking example of collective animal behaviour. A vivid illustration of this phenomenon is provided by the aerial display of vast flocks of starlings gathering at dusk. These great swirling masses manoeuvre themselves with extraordinary spatial coherence. Both the evolutionary justification and the basic mechanics of flocking appear to be poorly understood but are common throughout the natural world in schools of fish as well as swarms of insects.
A group of Italian physicists working on a project called STARFLAG claim to have devised a manner of 3d mapping that can allow scientists to determine how an individual starling will react and move within a flock. The mechanisms underlying flock movements may also be applicable to human economic behaviours, which also exhibit flocking phenomena like passing fads.

(Credit: STARFLAG project, INFM-CNR)

Creative corvid - who's the bird brain?

2008-07-29T03:53:00.000-07:00

a pecking order for avian cognition....

The New Caledonian crow is the only non-human species known to invent new tools by modifying existing ones, and then passing these innovations on to other individuals in the cultural group. They have also been seen making tools that they use in the wild out of completely different material.

In 2002, researcher Kacelnik and colleagues at the University of Oxford observed of a couple of New Caledonian Crows called Betty and Abel: Betty's toolmaking abilities came to light by accident during an experiment in which she and Abel had to choose between a hooked and a straight wire for retrieving small pieces of pig heart, their favorite food. When Abel made off with the hooked wire, Betty bent the straight wire into a hook and used the tool to lift a small bucket of food from a vertical pipe. This experiment was the first time the crows had been presented with wire.

(from the Behavioural Ecology Research Group at the University of Oxford)

The cognitive capabilities of corvids seem to be closely tied to social complexity. The larger the group within which a bird species lives, the more adept are individuals of that species at using intelligence to predict their position within a dominance hierarchy. But how do birds achieve such complex cognition with relatively small brains? This is, as yet, unclear, although it has been suggested that larger numbers and greater densities of neurons are to be found in the brains of the more “intelligent” birds. This was the case in a preliminary comparison between corvids and pigeons, but it needs to be confirmed.

Seagullibility.......

2008-07-29T02:31:00.000-07:00

The battle is on against the seagull. But lets have a little pro-seagullism...

Gull, informally seagull, Laridae family, genus Larus.

ground nesting carnivores, which will take live food or scavenge opportunistically. Gulls are resourceful and highly intelligent birds, demonstrating complex methods of communication and a highly developed social structure; for example, many gull colonies display mobbing behaviour, attacking and harassing would-be predators and other intruders. In addition species such as the Herring gull exhibit tool-use behaviour. Stealing the corvid crown of the feathered ape? Many species of gull have learned to coexist successfully with humans and have thrived in human habitats. Often relying on cleptoparasitism, i.e. stealing food from another animal that has already caught and killed the prey. The current greatest threat to seagulls is the loss of coastal habitat. Most seagulls nest in coastal areas and are losing more and more nesting grounds each year to human development. Surely a little seagull rage is justified...

Some excitingly named gulls: Belcher's Gull, Larus belcheri, Olrog's Gull, Larus atlanticus, Sooty Gull, Larus hemprichii, Kelp Gull, Larus dominicanus, Heuglin's Gull, Larus heuglini, Caspian Gull, Larus cachinnans, Hartlaub's Gull, Larus hartlaubii, Silver Gull, Larus novaehollandiae, Boneparte's Gull, Larus philadelphia, Relict Gull, Larus relictus, Lava Gull, Larus fuliginosus, Laughing Gull, Larus atricilla, Franklin's Gull, Larus pipixcan.

Recent seagull related reports include:

An elderly welshman suffering a fatal heart attack after being swooped on by seagulls.
An English woman was rushed to the hospital with deep beak wounds to her head.
A preschool in Scotland had to harness hawk-force to safeguard its children.
London postmen refused to deliver mail to a usually quiet street following attacks by what one resident described as a "slightly psycho herring gull."
And then there was Sam the Aberdonian shoplifting seagull, (below....)

(seagull management;

The seagull manager flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything then flies off again leaving a big mess behind)