Daedalus had a nephew named Perdix, whom he had taken when a boy to teach the trade of builder. But Perdix was a very apt learner and soon surpassed his master in the knowledge of many things. His eyes were ever open to see what was going on about him, and he learned the lore […]
Category: Phasianidae
Bird stories, Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
The Seminoles have a story about the Turkey, who was once the king of the birds and flew high in the air like the eagle. He would swoop down on the council ground and bear away a man. Then people devised a plan to catch him. Four men were to roll four big balls along […]
Bird stories, Congo Peacock (Afropavo congensis)
The Congo peafowl was only discovered in 1936 in the rain forests of the eastern Congo and called Hokoe by the natives. The name is derived from its song, “Hokoe, hokoe, hokoe,” sung around 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. It is believed that this bird tells people to wake up or to return home from […]
Bird stories, Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger)
By the Mbuti tribe of the DR Congo, the Black Guineafowl is considered to have such power to cause an illness. Several animals are thought to be sources of evil. The type of disease and its graveness vary, depending on the animals eaten. The most powerful and dangerous ones are avoided for most of the […]
Himalayan Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa)
[order] GALLIFORMES | [family] Phasianidae | [latin] Ophrysia superciliosa | [authority] Gray, 1846 | [UK] Himalayan Quail | [FR] | [DE] | [ES] | [NL] Himalaya Kwartel | [copyright picture] Birdlife Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Region Range Genus A single species from north-western India; possibly extinct. Physical charateristics Rather nondescript quail with red bill and […]
Territorial behaviour and population dynamics in red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. II. Population models
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 1 abstract 1) Recent experiments on cyclic red grouse populations discovered that aggressiveness, induced by testosterone implants, depressed population density for more than a year after the implants were exhausted. 2) This confirms the observation, also made in previous studies of this territorial species, that aggressiveness can determine population […]
Willow ptarmigan chicks consume moss sporophyte capsules
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 5 abstract Willow Ptarmigan( Lagopus lagopus) chicks consumes sporophyt capsules, a moss, istichiumin clinatuma, at La Perouse Bay, near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.S ix chicks(6 -16 days old) were examined over 3 yr, and crops of all chicks containemd moss capsules.In two chicks, capsules represented a substantial portion of the […]
Evidence of re-nesting after brood loss in Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 9 abstract The Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus is a single-brooded species that can re-lay if a clutch is lost during the nesting period (Cramp & Simmons 1980). However, there is no reported evidence regarding second clutches being attempted after a brood of young chicks is lost. Indeed, there […]
Breeding losses of red grouse in Glen Esk (NE Scotland): comparative studies, 30 years on
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 3 abstract Hatching success, brood survival and predation rates of red grouse chicks were examined at four sites in north-east Scotland over two years (1994-1995). Two of these sites have previously been the focus of a large-scale population study on grouse during the late 1950s enabling a comparison to […]
Identifying disease reservoirs in complex systems: mountain hares as reservoirs of ticks and louping-ill virus, pathogens of red grouse
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 8 abstract We examined the role of mountain hares in the louping-ill virus/Ixodes ricinus tick system to determine whether hares were reservoirs of these pathogens for red grouse. A field experiment, which involved reducing mountain hare densities was undertaken and changes in tick abundance, louping-ill virus seroprevalence and red […]