April 26, 2011

Bird of Paradise (Rhipidornis Gulielmi III)

WORK WITH DARWIN When Charles Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens collected during the second voyage of HMS Beagle to the Geological Society of London at their meeting on 4 January 1837, the bird specimens were given to Gould for identification. He set aside his paying work and at the next meeting on 10 January reported that birds from the Galápagos Islands which Darwin had thought were blackbirds, "gross-bills" and finches were in fact "a series of ground Finches which are so peculiar" as to form "an entirely new group, containing 12 species." This story made the newspapers. In March, Darwin met Gould again, learning that his Galápagos "wren" was another species of finch and the mockingbirds he had labelled by island were separate species rather than just varieties, with relatives on the South American mainland. Subsequently Gould advised that the smaller southern Rhea specimen that been had rescued from a Christmas dinner was a separate species which he named Rhea darwinii, whose territory overlapped with the northern rheas. Darwin had not bothered to label his finches by island, but others on the expedition had taken more care. He now sought specimens collected by captain Robert FitzRoy and crewmen. From them he was able to establish that the species were unique to islands, an important step on the inception of his theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work on the birds was published between 1838 and 1842 in five numbers as Part 3 of Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Charles Darwin.

The kinds of dogs that Queen Elizabeth loves most are Welsh Corgis, which are a short-legged type of herding dog. This breed of dog probably first came to Wales with Flemish weavers in the 1100s. Then they bred with local herding dogs and got to be really good at herding cattle and other livestock. The word corgi is Welsh for "small dog," so it kind of fits, even though corgis aren't as small as some other types of dogs.  (Notice the big smile on the Queen's face.)

	When Princess Elizabeth was a young child, her father got the family a corgi named Dookie. They loved Dookie so much, they got another corgi called Jane, who had puppies. The family kept two from Dookie and Jane's litter: Crackers and Carol.
The Princess was given her own first corgi, Susan, for her 18th birthday.  Since then Her Majesty has had over 30 corgis, nearly all of of which have been descended from her beloved Susan.

PRINCESS ELIZABETH AND CORGIS

The Queen and her dogs in 1933.  The dogs accompany the Queen everywhere.  She even took Susan on her honeymoon.

Queen Elizabeth getting a doggy kiss.

Queen Elizabeth liked to breed her corgis, and she let each female have one litter of puppies. She kept some of these puppies, but she gave the other ones to friends and relatives. The Queen also crossed corgis with dachshunds to make a dog she called a "dorgi." One time a photographer asked her how these two breeds of dog could mate, since one was taller than the other, and the Queen said, "It's very simple. We have a little brick." The daily menu for the corgis is typed up and posted on the kitchen wall. Some days the corgis have chuck steak, and other days there is poached chicken or liver or rabbit. The meat is chopped up and mixed with boiled cabbage and white rice. Besides fixing this yummy food for the dogs, the royal chefs also bake buttered scones to serve the Queen every day at tea. Except she never eats these. She gives them to the dogs instead. It is reported that the Queen mixes each dog's food bowl according to the individual dog's tastes.

In 2009 the Queen decided that she would stop breeding her dogs. And the reason for this is because she was 84 years old, and by the time the last dog she has gets old and dies, she will be in her 90s. Also two of her dogs died of cancer last year, which was very difficult for the Queen. So the corgis she has left now are Linnet, Monty, Holly, and Willow. And her dorgis are Cider, Berry, Candy, and Vulcan. All of these dogs live like royalty, so to speak. They have their very own Corgi Room, where they sleep in wicker baskets, but they also can run around the royal apartments wherever they want to. And in every room there is a big pile of blotting paper, in case someone has an "accident."

It is obvious that the Queen enjoys chatting with corgi owners.  There's always that big smile.

VISIT TO CANADA IN 2005

KERN'S RIVER VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

PORT HUDSON BATTLE

Beginning later than the siege of Vicksburg, but lasting longer, the siege of Port Hudson began on May 23, 1863, continuing until July 9. Roughly 30,000 Union troops were pitted against 6,800 Confederates under the command of Major General Franklin Gardner. On the morning of May 27 and again on June 14, the Union Army under the command of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks launched ferocious assaults against the four-and-one-half-mile long string of fortifications protecting the river batteries near Port Hudson. These actions constituted some of the most severe and bloodiest fighting of the entire Civil War, and places such as Fort Desperate, the Priest Cap, Slaughter's Field and the Citadel became names forever etched in the pages of American Civil War history.

BOMBARDMENT OF PORT HUDSON BY ADMIRAL FARRAGUT'S FLEET (March 14-15, 1863)

As the siege continued into July, the Confederates had nearly exhausted their ammunition and were reduced to eating mules, horses and rats. When word reached Confederate General Franklin Gardner that Vicksburg had surrendered, he realized that his situation was hopeless and nothing could be gained by continuing the defense of Port Hudson.

FORMAL SURRENDER OF PORT HUDSON

Surrender terms were negotiated, and on July 9, 1863, after forty-eight-days and thousands of casualties, the Union army entered Port Hudson. The surrender of the garrison was the final blow in a week of catastrophe for the Confederacy. On July 3, General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North was turned back at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The following day Vicksburg surrendered, and the Confederate drive through Arkansas was halted at Helena. Five days later came the surrender of Port Hudson. It was a week of crushing defeat, one from which the Confederacy would never recover.

SALUTING THE OLD FLAG AT PORT HUDSON (July 9, 1863)

The white-eyes are small passerine birds native to tropical, subtropical and temperate Sub-Saharan Africa, southern and eastern Asia, and Australasia. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, the western Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Guinea. Discounting some widespread members of the genus Zosterops, most species are endemic to single islands or archipelagos. The Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, naturally colonised New Zealand, where it is known as the "Wax-eye" or Tauhau ("stranger"), from 1855. The Silvereye has also been introduced to Hawaii.

The Silvereye, Zosterops lateralis, naturally colonised New Zealand, where it is known as the "Wax-eye" or Tauhau ("stranger"), from 1855. The Silvereye has also been introduced to Hawaii.

White-eyes are mostly of undistinguished appearance, the plumage being generally greenish olive above, and pale grey below.  Some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast or lower parts, and several have buff flanks.  As their common name implies, many species have a conspicuous ring of tiny white feathers around their eyes.  The scientific name of the group also reflects this latter feature, being derived from the Ancient Greek for "girdle-eye".  They have rounded wings and strong legs.  Like many other nectivorous birds, they have slender, pointed bills, and brush-tipped tongues.  The size ranges up to 15cm (6 inches) in length.

The Golden White-eye (Cleptornis marchei) is a species of bird in the Zosteropidae family.  It is monotypic within the genus Cleptornis.  It is endemic to Northern Mariana Islands.  Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, and urban areas.  It is threatened by Brown tree snakes, which decimated the bird species of Guam and recently arrived on the island of Saipan, one of the two islands that compose the range of the Golden White-eye.

The Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus) is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family.  Its native range includes much of east Asia, including Japan, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines.  It has been intentionally introduced to other parts of the world as a pet and as pest control, with mixed results.  As one of the native species of the Japanese islands, it has been depicted in Japanese art on numerous occasions, and historically was kept as a cage bird.

ECLIPSE

The Kitchen Table

Edo--once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo--is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868.
The One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the last masterwork of the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige (also known as Ando), is a series of landscape ukiyo-e prints whose subject matter is views of the city of Edo and its outskirts. It is composed of 118 prints designed by Hiroshige I, one print by Hiroshige II and a Table of Content, totaling 120 prints as a complete set. The series, along with his Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, is not only the most renowned polychrome woodblock prints of famous placesby Hiroshige, but also, with its bold compositional contrast between foreground and background and assimilation of the Western linear perspective, represents an apex of the landscape ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period.	Its superb artistic quality was also recognized in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, and the marked influence it exerted on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters such as Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin is well-known. Furthermore, since the Tokyo Association for the Crafts of Traditional Woodblock Printmaking completed its project of reprinting the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo in 2003, the number of exhibitions and publications related to the series has risen. At the same time, new scholarly works on its development of pictorial compositions and its place in a wider historical background have been undertaken in recent years, showing its continuing vitality as an object of research.

ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER FORTY-FIVE

YATSUMI BRIDGE

A luxuriant willow frames the upper right of this placid scene, its elegant branches drooping low into the composition. Below, two men slowly pole a boat stacked with kindling, while solitary fishermen, their boats tied to anchor poles, dip square nets into the shallow water. In the middle distance, Edo Castle stretches the width of the view, and Mount Fuji lies on the horizon with its customary majesty.  A pair of swallows gracefully course the summer sky. Yatsumi Bridge, the alternate name of Ichikoku Bridge, literally means "Eight-View Bridge" but is more accurately translated "Eight-Bridge View" since from this point fully eight different bridges were visible--including the one we are standing on.   Two more bridges may be seen in this view--Zenikame Bridge in the foreground and (barely) Dosan Bridge beyond.

AMBER FESTIVAL

Spinosaurus Spinosaurus ("Spine lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in what is now North Africa, from the Albian to early Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period, about 100 to 97 million years ago. The distinctive spines of Spinosaurus, which were long extensions of the vertebrae, grew up to 2 meters (7 ft) long and were likely to have had skin connecting them, forming a sail-like structure, although some authors have suggested that they were covered in muscle and formed a hump or ridge. Multiple functions have been put forward for this structure, including thermoregulation and display. According to recent estimates, Spinosaurus is the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs, even larger than Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus. These estimates suggest that it was around 16 to 18 metres (52 to 59 ft) in length and 7 to 9 tonnes (7.7 to 9.9 short tons) in weight.

LEOPARD pixdaus.com

The Mamey (Mammea americana) is also known as mammee apple, South American apricot and Saint Domingo apricot. This tropical American fruit is related to the mangosteen, and is the size of a large orange. The mamey has a thick, russet bitter skin, and sweet, juicy reddish or yellow flesh, with a taste similar to an apricot.

What is the common name for roasted buckwheat groats (or a porridge made from them) in Eastern European countries? ??? PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!

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