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African Pitta
The African pitta (''Pitta angolensis'') is an Afrotropical bird of the family Pittidae. It is a locally common to uncommon species, resident and migratory in the west, and an intra-African migrant between equatorial and southeastern Africa. They are elusive and hard to observe despite their brightly coloured plumage, and their loud, explosive calls are infrequently heard. The plump, somewhat thrush-like birds forage on leaf litter under the canopy of riparian or coastal forest and thickets, or in climax miombo forest. They spend much time during mornings and at dusk scratching in leaf litter or around termitaria, or may stand motionless for long periods. Following rains breeding birds call and display from the mid-canopy. Taxonomy The African pitta was described by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816 and given the binomial name ''Pitta angolensis''. Vieillot had introduced the genus ''Pitta'' in another book published in the same year. Three subspecies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collected himself in the West Indies and North America and South American species discovered but not formally named by Félix de Azara and his translator Sonnini de Manoncourt. He was among the first ornithologists to study changes in plumage and one of the first to study live birds. At least 77 of the genera erected by Vieillot are still in use. Biography Vieillot was born in Yvetot. He represented his family's business interests in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) on Hispaniola, but fled to the United States during the Haitian rebellions that followed the French Revolution. On Buffon's advice, he collected material for the ''Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale,'' the first two volumes of which were published in France beginning i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congo Basin
The Congo Basin (french: Bassin du Congo) is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It contains some of the largest tropical rainforests in the world and is an important source of water used in agriculture and energy generation. The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon rainforest in size, with 300 million hectares compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon. Because of its size and diversity, many experts have characterized the basin's forest as important for mitigating climate change because of its role as a carbon sink. However, deforestation and degradation of the ecology by the impacts of climate change may increase stress on the forest ecosystem, in turn making the hydrology of the basin more variable. A 2012 study found that the variability in precipita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ziziphus
''Ziziphus'' is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and long; some species are deciduous, others evergreen. The flowers are small, inconspicuous yellow-green. The fruit is an edible drupe, yellow-brown, red, or black, globose or oblong, long, often very sweet and sugary, reminiscent of a date in texture and flavour. Etymology The generic name is derived via classical Latin from Hellenistic Greek, where it is presumed to have been borrowed from another language, perhaps from ''zizfum'' or ''zizafun'', the Persian word for '' Z. lotus''. Ecology ''Ziziphus'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including '' Bucculatrix zizyphella'', which feeds exclusively on the genus, and '' Endoclita malabaricus''. Well known species includes ''Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Ataxacantha
''Senegalia ataxacantha'', commonly known as the flame thorn, is an African tree species with conspicuous red pods and numerous hooked prickles. Range It is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and in the Transvaal and KwaZulu-Natal. In arid regions it prefers low-lying sites near streams, watercourses and in valleys, but in higher rainfall areas is a common constituent of the bush, often favouring forest margins. Once established, young trees are quite frost-hardy. Description Its normal habit is that of a multi-stemmed, untidy, large shrub with a tendency for the shoots to scramble using their recurved prickles, and often develops into a single-stemmed tree of 5-10m in height and 300mm trunk diameter. The rounded crown of dense, dark green foliage is composed of very small pinnules. Translucent red pods provide a colourful display when backlit. The flaking bark is light grey, splitting longitudinally and tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faune De La Sénégambie, Vertébrés (1883) (14770887764), Pitta Angolensis
The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before their conflation with Greek satyrs, they and Faunus were represented as nude men (e.g. the Barberini Faun). Later fauns, became copies of the satyrs of Greek mythology, who themselves were originally shown as part-horse rather than part-goat. By Renaissance times fauns were depicted as bipedal creatures with the horns, legs, and tail of a goat and the head, torso, and arms of a human; they are often depicted with pointed ears. These late-form mythological creatures borrowed their appearance from the satyrs, who in turn borrowed their appearance from the god Pan of the Greek pantheon. They were symbols of peace and fertility, and their Greek chieftain, Silenus, was a minor deity of Greek mythology. Origins Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
