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White-collared Starling
The white-collared starling (''Grafisia torquata'') is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Grafisia''. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. Taxonomy The species was first identified by Anton Reichenow and named ''Spreo torquatus'', from the Latin for "torquated", referring to the coloration around the neck of the male. It was later identified independently by James Chapin in 1913 in the Belgian Congo as ''Stilbopsar leucothorax'', from the Greek λευκός (meaning "white") and θώραξ (meaning "chest"), again referring to its white collar. They were placed into its current genus ''Grafisia'' by George Latimer Bates in 1926, based on substantial differences between the white-collared starling and members of either ''Spreo ''Spreo'' is an alternative genus of starling in the family Sturnidae. They are now usually lumped in the genus ''Lamprotornis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Latimer Bates
George Latimer Bates (March 21, 1863, Abingdon, Illinois US – January 31, 1940 Chelmsford UK), LL.D., M.B.O.U. was an American naturalist. Bates studied at Knox College, Galesburg and at the Chicago Theological Seminary and in 1895 visited West Africa and lived in the south east Cameroon, making a living by farming. He collected natural history specimens in his travels and sent many of these to the Natural History Museum in London. In 1928 Bates moved to England and wrote a ''Handbook on the Birds of West Africa'' (1930). He learned Arabic and visited Arabia in 1934 and studied the ornithology of Arabia. He was unable to publish the work but wrote several papers on Arabian birds for the ''Ibis''. His unpublished manuscript on the ''Birds of Arabia'' was later used by Richard Meinertzhagen. Legacy A species of African snake, ''Rhamnophis batesii'', is named in his honor,Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulletin Of The British Ornithologists' Club
The ''Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club'' is an ornithological journal published by the British Ornithologists' Club (BOC). It is cited as ''Bull. B. O. C.'' Many descriptions of birds new to science have been published in the bulletin. The journal was first published in 1892. It is published in four quarterly issues. from March 2017 (Vol. 137 No. 1), it became an online-only, open access, journal, giving as the reasons for the change: Since 2004, the journal's honorary editor has been Guy Kirwan. List of editors List of Bulletin Editors with dates of tenure * Richard Bowdler Sharpe 1892–1904 * W. R. Ogilvie-Grant 1904–1914 * David Armitage Bannerman 1914–1915 * D. Seth-Smith 1915–1920 * Percy R. Lowe 1920–1925 * Norman B. Kinnear 1925–1930 * G. Carmichael Low 1930–1935 and 1940–1945 * C. H. B. Grant 1935–1940 and 1947–1952 * W. P. C. Tenison 1945–1947 * J. G. Harrison 1952–1961 * J.J. Yealland 1962–1969 * C.W. Benson 1969–19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Central Africa
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. Birds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macaulay Library
The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal sounds. It includes more than 33 million photographs, 1.2 million audio recordings, and over two hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ever-increasing numbers of insect, fish, frog, and mammal recordings. The Library is part of Cornell Lab of Ornithology of Cornell University. History Arthur Augustus Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg made the first recordings of bird sound on May 18, 1929 in an Ithaca park. They used motion-picture film with synchronized sound to record a song sparrow, a house wren, and a rose-breasted grosbeak. This was the Beginning of Cornell Library of Natural Sounds. Graduate student Albert R. Brand and Cornell undergraduate M. Peter Keane developed recording equipment for use in the open field. In the next two years they had successfully recorded more than 40 species of birds. In 1931 Peter Keane and True McLean (a Cornell professor in Electrical Engineeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ostrich (journal)
''Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology'' is a journal of African ornithology published by BirdLife South Africa, formerly the South African Ornithological Society, in association with the National Inquiry Services Centre (NISC) and Taylor & Francis. It contains papers on the birds of Africa and its islands, including peer-reviewed original scientific paper : ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.'' Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scienti ...s of 3000 to 5,000 words, short articles of up to 3000 words, perspectives, commentaries and reviews. Topics include behaviour, breeding, biology, conservation, ecology, migrations, movements and systematics. This is a hybrid journal: offering open access publishing, but also following the standard publishing model without charges to authors. The journal achieved its highest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macaranga
''Macaranga'' is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae (tribe Acalypheae). Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the genus comprises over 300 different species. It was first described as a genus in 1806, based on specimens collected on the Island of Mauritius. ''Macaranga'' is noted for being recolonizers. ''Macaranga'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including ''Endoclita malabaricus''. ''Macaranga'' species often form symbioses with ant ( Formicidae) species (particularly ''Crematogaster'' ants of the subgenus '' Decacrema'') because they have hollow stems that can serve as nesting space and occasionally provide nectar. The trees benefit because the ants attack herbivorous insects and either drive them away or feed on them. Use * Macaranga gum, a crimson resin, is obtained from '' Macaranga indica''. * ''M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musanga Cecropioides
''Musanga cecropioides'', the African corkwood tree or umbrella tree, is found in tropical Africa from Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ... south to Angola and east to Uganda. It is typical in secondary forests. This tree is also known as ''parasolier'', ''n'govoge'', ''govwi'', ''doe'', ''kombo-kombo'', ''musanga'', and ''musanda''. Description ''Musanga cecropioides'' can reach a height of with a diameter of . Its trunk has a pale whitish/yellow tone with a rough, granular texture. Ecology ''Musanga cecropioides'' is a pioneer species and readily springs up in newly cleared patches of forest. In Nigeria it is joined in these locations by the Rauvolfia vomitoria, poison devil's-pepper (''Rauvolfia vomitoria''), the Terminalia ivorensis, Ivory Coast al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Figs
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world, both for its fruit and as an ornamental plant.''The Fig: its History, Culture, and Curing'', Gustavus A. Eisen, Washington, Govt. print. off., 1901 ''Ficus carica'' is the type species of the genus ''Ficus'', containing over 800 tropical and subtropical plant species. A fig plant is a small deciduous tree or large shrub growing up to tall, with smooth white bark. Its large leaves have three to five deep lobes. Its fruit (referred to as syconium, a type of multiple fruit) is tear-shaped, long, with a green skin that may ripen toward purple or brown, and sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. The milky sap of the green parts is an irritant to human skin. In the Northern Hemisphere, fresh figs are in season from l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berries
A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, white currants and blackcurrants. In Britain, soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits. In common usage, the term "berry" differs from the scientific or botanical definition of a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion (pericarp). The botanical definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known or referred to as berries, such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, bananas, and chili peppers. Fruits commonly considered berries but excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which are aggregate fruits and mulberries, which are mul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insects
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open cavity known as the haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms. The total number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million; In: potentially over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth are insects. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated insects are nested within. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. Inse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montane Grasslands And Shrublands
Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than the ecological term which denotes the region below treeline. This biome includes high elevation (montane and alpine) grasslands and shrublands, including the puna and páramo in South America, subalpine heath in New Guinea and East Africa, steppes of the Tibetan plateaus, as well as other similar subalpine habitats around the world. The plants and animals of tropical montane páramos display striking adaptations to cool, wet conditions and intense sunlight. Around the world, characteristic plants of these habitats display features such as rosette structures, waxy surfaces, and abundant pilosity. The páramos of the northern Andes are the most extensive examples of this habitat type. Although ecoregion biotas are most diverse in the And ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most animals and some plants. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, colour, markings, or behavioural or cognitive traits. These differences may be subtle or exaggerated and may be subjected to sexual selection and natural selection. The opposite of dimorphism is ''monomorphism'', which is when both biological sexes are phenotypically indistinguishable from each other. Overview Ornamentation and coloration Common and easily identified types of dimorphism consist of ornamentation and coloration, though not always apparent. A difference in coloration of sexes within a given species is called sexual dichromatism, which is commonly seen in many species of birds and reptiles. Sexual selection leads to the exaggerated dim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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