April 30, 2011

Amazilia cyanura

The Gould League, founded in Australia in 1909, was named after John Gould. This organization gave many Australians their first introduction to birds, along with more general environmental and ecological education. One of its major sponsors was the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia.

LAST OF THE BUFFALO

Landing Supplies, Grand Encore, Louisiana, 1864

The Union now controlled the Mississippi River and re-focused on the Confederate supply lines to the west. Shreveport, on the Red River, Louisiana, was the main supply depot for the Confederate army west of the Mississippi. In March, 1864, General Nathaniel P. Banks, with 25,000 troops, in connection with Admiral Porter, began a Red River campaign toward Shreveport, having waited for the river to rise. Progress was slow, impeded by endless obstructions placed in the river by the retreating Rebels, and constant skirmishes. At a place called Mansfield, only 40 miles from the Texas line, Confederate Generals Kirby Smith and Dick Taylor rallied their forces, numbering 11,000, and made a stand that repulsed and disorganized General Banks. He fell back to Pleasant Hill, was again defeated and forced to retreat to Grand Encore on the Red River, re-joining Admiral Porter's fleet. Grand Encore is just above Natchitoches, and derives its name from the great bluff on which it stands. During his occupancy of the point General Banks constructed extensive fortifications made of logs and sandbags. The ultimate outcome of the Red River campaign was a victory for General Taylor and his Confederates. They had lost 1,621 men, compared to 1,369 Union casualties, and the exhausted survivors were in wretched condition. Their sacrificial stand had defeated an overwhelmingly superior adversary and effectively ended the war west of the Mississippi. Events east of the Mississippi River would now dominate the final stages of the Civil War.

On Picket Duty in Louisiana Swamps

From Harper's Weekly, May 9, 1863:  The picture illustrating picket duty in the swamps of Louisiana shows what our brave soldiers have to encounter in their campaign under General Banks.  Alligators and rattlesnakes abound on the bayous and in the swamps, and all manner of unpleasant creeping, flying, and walking creatures swarm under the luxuriant tropical vegetation.  Campaigning in such a region has its charm, but it has its drawbacks too.

FLOWERS

The Alaskan Malamute is a generally large, wolf-like breed of domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) originally bred for use as an Alaskan sled dog. They are sometimes mistaken for a Siberian Husky, but in fact are quite different in many ways. As pets, Malamutes have a very quiet temperament and are often loyal to their owners.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) breed standard calls for a natural range of size, with a desired freighting size of 23 inches (584 mm) and 75 pounds (34 kg) for females, 25 inches (635 mm) and 85 pounds (39 kg) for males. Heavier individuals (90 lb (41 kg)) and dogs smaller than 75 pounds (34 kg) are commonly seen.

There is often a marked size difference between males and females. Weights upwards of 120 pounds (54 kg) are occasionally seen, but this is uncommon and such dogs are produced primarily by breeders who market a 'giant Malamute.' These large sizes are not in accordance with show standards.

The coat is a dense double northern dog coat, somewhat "harsher" (in a certain sense) than that of the smaller Siberian Husky. The usual colors are various shades of gray and white, sable and white, black and white, red and white, or solid white. Blue and white (slate gray with gray pigment) also is seen in the breed.

Eyes are almond-shaped and are always various shades of brown (from dark to light, honey or hazel brown); blue eyed Malamutes will be disqualified in conformation shows, as they would not be a purebred Malamute, but mixed with perhaps a Siberian Husky. The physical build of the Malamute is compact with heavy bone, in most (but not all) cases. In this context 'compact' means that their height to length ratio is slightly longer than tall, unlike dogs like Great Danes which are longer and lankier in their ratios.

According to the AKC breed standard, the Malamute's tail is well furred and is carried over the back like a "waving plume". Corkscrew tails are occasionally seen but are faulted in the AKC breed standard (a corkscrew tail is commonly seen in the Akita). The Malamutes' well-furred tails aid in keeping them warm when they curl up in the snow. They are often seen wrapping the tail around their nose and face, which presumably helps protect them against harsh weather such as blowing snow. Their ears are generally upright.

GIRL AT THE PIANO

The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands. ---Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th U.S. President (1908-1973)

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-SEVEN

SEIDO AND KANDA RIVER FROM SHOHEI BRIDGE

The viewpoint is the Shohei Bridge of the title, of which a slice appears in the lower right.  Beyond, we look through the gorge of the Kanda River, with exquisitely shaded green banks rising high on either side.  These banks were not so dramatic in reality, but Hiroshige's picturesque exaggeration reminds us that this is not a natural river--rather, a channel laboriously carved through Kanda Mountain in the 1610s as a way of diverting the flood-prone Hira River, which survives in part as the Nihonbashi River. The Seido of the title is the Sage's Hall, a shrine dedicated to Confucius and testimony to the Tokugawa shogunate's efforts to promote Confucianism as an orthodox creed of the state. Here we see only the outer walls of the compound where the shrine and its affiliated Confucian college were located.  They rise in staggered array along the slope known as Shoheizaka, which takes its name after Changping in the state of Lu, where Confucius was born more than five centuries before Christ. The shrine survives today as a traditionalist center of Chinese culture.  The site of the college, at the crest of the hill to the left, has been occupied by a variety of educational institutions in moder times.  Today it is the home of Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

ANIMAL CRACKERS

The product we know today came into being in 1902, but it had existed in similar forms for generations. During the Christmas season of 1902, packaging became an important factor. It was designed with a string attached to it so it could be hung as a Christmas tree ornament. In total, there have been 37 different varieties; currently there are 22.  More than 40 million packages of these are sold each year, and they are exported to 17 countries.  They are turned out at the rate of 12,000 per minute, and nearly 6,000 miles of string are used on the packages. Poet-philosopher Christopher Morley wrote a poem named for them.

"Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink, That is the finest of suppers, I think. When I'm grown up and can have what I please, I think I shall always insist upon these." by Christopher Morley

In 1902 the National Biscuit Company's Animal Biscuits assumed the legal trademark name of BARNUM'S ANIMALS. They designed the colorful five-cent box that looked like a circus wagon cage, and attached a string so the box could be hung from the Christmas tree. In total there have been 37 different animals represented since 1902. The current lineup is tiger, cougar, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo, hippopotamus, bison, lion, hyena, zebra, elephant, sheep, bear, gorilla, monkey, seal and giraffe.

The Muscovy Duck is a greenish black duck with red wattles, found wild in Mexico and northern South America. The Muscovy was domesticated in South America before the arrival of Columbus. The Muscovy and the wild Mallard are believed to be the ancestors of all modern domestic ducks.

MUSCOVY DUCK CHICK

MALE MUSCOVY DUCK

MUSCOVY DUCK CHICK (one day old)

What food product comes from a rare species of tropical American orchid? ??? PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!

Blackberry Ripple	Brandaris

Sinraptor Sinraptor is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. The name Sinraptor comes from the Latin prefix "Sino," meaning Chinese, and "Raptor" meaning thief. Despite its name, Sinraptor is not related to dromaeosaurids (often nicknamed "raptors") like Velociraptor. Standing nearly 3 meters tall (10 ft) and measuring roughly 7.6 meters (25 ft) in length, two species of Sinraptor have been named. S. dongi, the type species, was described by Currie and Zhao in 1994. A second species, originally named Yangchuanosaurus hepingensis by Gao in 1992, may actually represent a second species of Sinraptor. Whether or not this is the case, Sinraptor and Yangchuanosaurus were close relatives, and are classified together in the family Sinraptoridae.

pixdaus.com

ROYAL WORCESTER VASE

BOURKE'S PARROT

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