Old Posts Addenda (5)

 A Baker's Half-dozen 
   Here are some "Breaking News" items relating to subjects already covered in MM. 

1. A Big Bird Kill
   There is a flock of posts in MM relating to birds of various kinds and a few have been devoted to the losses in the avian world. In "Passenger Pigeons", their disappearance was lamented and a description of a large flock over the Bruce Peninsula long ago is provided. Readers of The Times (of London) used to write letters to that paper about the spotting of the first cuckoo in the spring. Now they are rarely seen and the song of the nightingale seldom heard ("Books of The Times.") 
   Soon it is the murres we will be missing.
"Scientists Just Confirmed the Largest Bird-killing Event in Modern History: A Marine Heat Wave in the Pacific Ocean That Began a Decade ago Killed some 4 Million Common Murres in Alaska, Researchers say," Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2024.
"It would take years of study to confirm they had witnessed the largest die-off of any bird species ever recorded in the modern era, according to new research published in the journal Science on Thursday.... The killing was an order of magnitude larger, she said, than the hundreds of thousands of murres that perished in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.“We’ve had lots of long-term declines that have been observed in wildlife,” she said. “But what’s really different here — that we haven’t seen before — is this really swift catastrophe where in one year we have half the population of this really abundant seabird just wiped out.”

2. What Will Eat the Dead Buzzards?
   The "Vanishing Vultures" in India that were written about in MM in 2017 are in the news again. See:
"The Hidden Value of Vultures: "Researchers believe a massive die-off of the birds led to over 100,000 additional human deaths per year in India, by Ian Rose, The Washington Post, September 14, 2024 and
"How a Crisis for Vultures Led to a Human Disaster: Half a Million Deaths The birds were accidentally poisoned in India. New research on what happened next shows how wildlife collapse can be deadly for people," Catrin Eihorn, NYT, July 29, 2024.
   "Now, economists have put an excruciating figure on just how vital they can be: The sudden near-disappearance of vultures in India about two decades ago led to more than half a million excess human deaths over five years, according to a forthcoming study in the American Economic Review."
  Rotting livestock carcasses, no longer picked to the bones by vultures, polluted waterways and fed an increase in feral dogs, which can carry rabies. It was “a really huge negative sanitation shock,” said Anant Sudarshan, one of the study’s authors and an economics professor at the University of Warwick in England...."
"The findings reveal the unintended consequences that can occur from the collapse of wildlife, especially animals known as keystone species for the outsize roles they play in their ecosystems. Increasingly, economists are seeking to measure such impacts."

    The buzzards are also disappearing in other places. 
“To Save a Scavenger: Why Vultures Need Our Protection," Mary Cunningham, Columbia Magazine, Spring/Summer 2024.
   "Vultures, known (and notorious) for their penchant for rotting flesh, have experienced major population decline over the last few decades, due in large part to poisoning, explains Kendall. Hunters often put pesticides on carcasses to kill the scavengers, making it harder for law enforcement to detect illegal poaching (“circling vultures can indicate the presence of a large carcass and therefore help rangers find dead elephants”). Additionally, farmers sometimes use poison to retaliate against predators that kill their livestock. “When the vultures feed on the bodies, they die within a few hours,” says Kendall, adding that vultures are also sometimes killed by superstitious locals who see them as bad omens."

3. Too Many Crows: The Rochester Roost
   A few years ago you were told about the very large number of crows in Burnaby and when we were in Vancouver recently we saw them at dusk everyday flying over and heading there,(see "A Murder of Crows".) "The Purple Martin Problem" in Nashville was noticed more recently and now there is a big murder of crows close by in upstate New York.
  "Where It Isn’t Christmas Until the City Shoots Lasers at 20,000 Crows: In Rochester, N.Y., every year in early December thousands of crows descend on the city, which tries to shoo them away with loud noises and bright lights," David Andreatta, NYT, Dec. 14, 2024.
  "In Rochester, N.Y., there are telltale signs that the holiday season is underway.Santa’s workshop opens at the outdoor ice rink downtown. There is the lighting of the pyramid of kegs at the local brewery. Productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Nutcracker” begin.Then there are the tens of thousands of crows that descend on the city every day at dusk in early December, and the fireworks and lasers that are deployed to drive them away.City officials and wildlife experts estimate upward of 20,000 crows roost downtown nightly.“It’s like you’re in ‘The Birds,’” said Rachel Kudiba, referring to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film about birds on a murderous rampage."

4. Line 5
   Line 5 is that pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac where we hope it does not rupture. This is about Line 6 which just did. Here is the story:
"Enbridge Pipeline Spills 260,000 litres of oil in Wisconsin," A.P., Dec.14, 2024.
   "Line 6 is a 748.3-kilometre pipeline carrying crude oil from Superior, Wisconsin, to a terminal near Griffith, Indiana, according to a company map. Critics noted the spill was discovered during the same week that Wisconsin regulators approved the first permits for Enbridge’s plan to move the aging Line 5 pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation. Opponents said it would still threaten the region’s watershed and perpetuate the use of fossil fuels." 
For Line 5 in MM: see, e.g. "Line 5" and "Line 5 Again."

5. "I'll Bet Ya!"
   I am willing to bet the issue of gambling will soon be as big as the debts being accrued. Among the many posts about betting in MM, this one discussed the large wagers placed by someone named "DRAKE" and Phil Mickleson,(see, "ON Betting.") They are not the only one making big bets.
"Bettor Places Largest NFL Wager of the Year: $3.1Million on the Eagles-Panthers Game," Ben Fawkes, Dec.7, The Athletic. 
On Thursday afternoon, Circa Sports reported taking a $3.1 million wager on the Eagles moneyline (ML) against the Carolina Panthers. The wager was placed at -700 odds, meaning the bettor will win roughly $442,850 if the Eagles win the game straight up...."
He won, by the way: #3.1 Million Bet on Eagles Wins After Panthers' Dropped Pass," David Purdum, ESPN, Dec.8, 2024.

Cathal Kelly is the best reason to get a subscription to the Globe and Mail and he picked Gambling Promotors as major sports villains this year: "Sporting Heroes and Villains From 2024," Dec. 25, 2024:
"Gambling promoters: Gambling is legal. Once upon a time, so was drinking and driving.
Using that fig leaf, Canada’s broadcasts and pages are full of people you recognize encouraging fellow citizens with far less than them to blow their rent money betting the under.
Driven by the NHL and its flunkies in the sports media, it is an unalloyed display of amoral greed. Some day, it will be seen as a national embarrassment. Until then, we will continue doing the Canadian thing by pretending that because it doesn’t affect anybody we know, it’s not happening."

Thomas's "The Cotton Bowl" (2011)

6. A Black Sculpture By a Black Sculptor
   In a post about Hank Willis Thomas you learned about a work of his - which was inspired by an event in the 1960s on the Eastern Shore of Maryland -  now resides in a Vancouver back yard. He continues to sculpt and is doing well. For the post see: "A Black Sculpture.")
"Hank Willis Thomas Sees What America Can't Say: In His Art About Race and Freedom, He Asks Us to Look Closer, and Think Twice," Robin Givhan,The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2024.
"Over the years, Thomas has blossomed into a public artist. His large-scale sculptures, often inspired by photographs, are now part of landscapes across the country. [and even in Canada.]

7. More Pictures From An Institution
   This title was borrowed from Randall Jarrell and I have used it before. It is found in a post about "Jasper Cropsey" and the controversy that ensued when one of his paintings was sold by the University of Western Ontario. A similar controversy is unfolding in Indiana where, you may be surprised to learn, Valparaiso University is located. 
  UWO needed money back in 1980, just as Valparaiso does now. That University came up with a plan to sell some paintings so new dormitories could be built. The justification for selling the paintings needed a legal basis and the University devised a way of characterizing the paintings so they could be sold without violating the terms of the donation. The former director of the Museum which held the paintings said, “I think it was a clever way of trying to pick at the validity of the paintings, and it was done because they thought they wouldn’t have to answer to anyone but the judge..." 
   This controversy needs more space than can be utilized here. You can learn about the "Cropsey Controversy" at UWO by looking at my earlier post. As well, there was a more recent controversy when the Western History Department had to come up with a way to keep a donor's money, while dropping the donor's name (see "Western and the Hilborn Issue.") For the issue in Indiana, see this article:
"To Sell Prized Paintings, a University Proclaims They’re Not 'Conservative': ‘Valparaiso University is arguing it should never have acquired two paintings, including a Georgia O’Keeffe, in the 1960s. It hopes to sell them to pay for dorm renovations," Annie Agular, NYT, July 19, 2024.
   "An Indiana judge is facing that very question as Valparaiso University contends that it should be able to sell high-value paintings it owns, including a Georgia O’Keeffe landscape of the New Mexico desert, in order to finance a renovation of freshman dormitories.When the private, nonprofit university announced its plan last year, it said the sale was necessary because enrollment had declined, which has also prompted the school to cut some programs and positions. After opposition to the sale of the art that had long hung in its on-campus museum, the college is now arguing before a court that selling two of the paintings is justified because they should never have been acquired in the first place."
  By the way, perhaps the committee that purchased the paintings now up for sale should be re-constituted to handle Valparaiso's investment portfolio:
 The university’s petition says the committee bought the O’Keeffe in 1962 for $5,700 and the Hassam in 1967 for $9,000. “Rust Red Hills” renders New Mexico mountains in draping, muscular forms, and “The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate” explodes a pre-bridge San Francisco Bay into an impressionistic light-dappled array.
   Those modernist American landscapes are now the most valuable works in the Brauer’s collection. Appraisals commissioned by the university estimated fair market values of $10.5 million to $15 million for the O’Keeffe and $1 million to $3.5 million for the Hassam. (The Church is valued at $1 million to $3 million.)

Post Script: 
   The Cropsey post also contains some information about another art controversy at Fisk University and other collections at Dubuque and Colby. Given that such controversies are likely to increase as university budgets decline, the link to the Task Force For the Protection of University Collections --Tookit provided in that post and again above, could be useful. 

The Bonus: 
  Art collections at universities can be valuable resources for the surrounding community as well. For some of the better ones see this article:
"The Best College Art Museums in America: The Post's Art Critics Pick Their Favorite Museums at Colleges and Universities Across the U.S.", The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2024.
Here they are:
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University Harvard Art Museums RISD Museum Yale University Art Gallery Those who commented on the article mentioned, Smith College, the Stanley Museum of Art at Iowa and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. Several mentioned that Princeton was constructing a major new one.    

Falcons Flying

 On Planes 
   All sorts of birds have recently flown south and I just wrote about some that are flying in a wind tunnel up at Western. There are others, however, that arrive at their destinations by airplanes. 
   Recently I ran across an article in which passengers travelling from Miami to Doha complained about the squawking of a large flock of birds which were flying as cargo. In the Middle East where falconry is popular and oil money readily available, the birds can also be found flying as passengers in the cabin. A Saudi prince booked a flight and bought tickets for 80 of them. According to Qatar Airways, "You can carry one falcon in the Economy Class cabin of an aircraft, and a maximum of six falcons are permitted within the Economy Class cabin of any one aircraft." 

Sources: 

   "14 Hours Of Screaming Birds In Business Class—Unbelievable Qatar Airways Nightmare," Gary Leff, View From the Wing, Sept.8, 2024.
   You are skeptical, I'm sure and others are as well, so Snopes investigated the photo above and you can learn more here: 'Pic Shows Saudi Prince's 80 Falcons Riding a Plane?" Anna Rascouet-Paz, Snopes, Mar. 29, 2024.

The Bonus:

   There is a new book about the old art of falconry, published by the University of Chicago Press. For a review of, The Art of Medieval Falconry see: "Books: A Sovereign in the Sky," by Laura Jacobs, Wall Street Journal, Oct.12, 2024.
"Mr. Hadjinicolaou is an assistant professor of art history at the University of Bonn, and "The Art of Medieval Falconry" is his second book. Its title can be understood two ways. The first concerns falconry as it's been depicted in art of the Middle Ages -- in illustrated manuscripts, frescoes, paintings, sculptures, objects and tapestries, many of which have been handsomely reproduced here -- and what these representations, often iconographic, express. The second looks at the practice of falconry itself, an ingenious way to hunt food that eventually transcended, by way of passionate practitioners who tended to be kings, into an Arthurian art form -- one with the gravity of religion and the privilege of wings."

  

AFAR

 Advanced Facility For Avian Research
   I have been a bit under the weather, but overhead the skies have been clear and the fall weather fine. That combination resulted in a loss in the  production of posts for MM, but I can’t say there has been an increase in the number of complaints from readers. The few who appear to stumble upon something in MM, do so whether I am writing or not and the royalties continue to roll into my offshore accounts.

 

  While high in the clear sky the birds have continued their migration south, there are some birds in London flying continuously, but going nowhere. Their wings are flapping at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research up at Western University. I told you about that place four years ago in “For The Birds” and the information there is still useful. 
    More is provided, and AFAR noticed, in a recent article in the New York Times. It is good that we can read some local news, even if it comes from afar. Online you will find it under, “What Flying in a Wind Tunnel Reveals About Birds,” on Oct 11. It appears in print in the NYT on Oct. 15, with the title, “Some Birds Migrate Thousands of Miles Every Autumn: How Exactly Do They To They Manage It? Scientists Built a Flight Chamber to Find Out.” Emily Anthes is the author. Here is a portion that provides some of the questions for which answers are sought by those up at Western. 

  "It is understandably difficult to monitor the internal workings of a wild bird while it is soaring thousands of feet in the air. So Dr. Guglielmo sends his avian test subjects on simulated journeys. At the Advanced Facility for Avian Research, he and his colleagues use a hypobaric wind tunnel, which functions, in essence, as a treadmill for airborne birds....

   Scientists can send air through the main test chamber at varying speeds, up to about 40 miles per hour. Not all birds take to the tunnel — “about half of them will be good fliers,” Dr. Guglielmo said — but those that do can flap their wings for hours at a time while remaining, conveniently, in one place.

Researchers can adjust not only the wind speed inside the tunnel but also the temperature, humidity and air pressure to simulate different flying conditions and altitudes. They can study the physics of flight, mapping how air flows around the bodies of different birds, or focus on avian physiology: How does a bird’s breathing change at higher altitudes? How does diet affect flight performance?"
For additional information see: AFAR. 

Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
   The hypobaric wind tunnel at Western is not the only wind tunnel at Western. Back in the mid-1960s, UWO was "considered the birthplace of the modern practice of wind engineering."  For more details see this digital heritage plaque.      

Post Script
   It used to be the case that no one knew where the birds went when the weather turned cold. A clue was finally provided by a stork.
See: "The University of the Unusual (2) - The Mystery of Avian Migration."

BIRD ILLUSTRATORS

LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES

   I used to work in the Western Libraries back when there were more of them and the collections they held were impressive. As I have indicated in several posts, the area devoted to books and other resources has shrunk, while space for the students has grown. Many books are in storage, where they cannot be browsed and I think that is unfortunate. 

   It is the case, however, that the argument for keeping books and other scholarly resources has been lost. And, admittedly, the losing of that argument is not as unfortunate as one might think - unless you prefer printed books and journals.

   The material in storage is easily retrieved for you, if you know it is there. As well, much of it can be accessed electronically and from afar and at anytime. About the only rationale one can offer for keeping all those old books and journals around is an aesthetic one which does not hold much appeal for many. 

    That gets me to Fuertes, who produced books about birds and provided the illustrations for many others. Seeing such books and works like, The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America, is more appealing to me than viewing them electronically (that book is in storage.)

   A couple of years ago, I did a post about "Bird Art" and in it wrote about the works of John Gould and provided a list of his beautifully illustrated books that were held by the Western Libraries, but were in storage. There also are books by Fuertes in storage and I will provide just a couple of examples. If you want to see some of his images from afar you can visit the L.A. Fuertes Image Database at Cornell in Ithaca, where Fuertes was born. You will find 2500 and they are searchable by type (e.g. drawings, water colour, gouaches). You might argue that providing space for such things is no longer necessary, but I still disagree.

 

 Here are a few Fuerte's works in storage at the Western Libraries. He has been described as "the nation's most notable ornithological painter since Audubon."

A Natural History of American Birds of Eastern and Central America;

Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States;

The Bird Life of Texas;

To a Young Bird Artist: Selected Letters From Louis Agassiz Fuertes to George Miksch Sutton.

The Bonus:

   I am pleased that, at least for now, there are other bird-related items to be found in storage. If you want to listen to them for example, here are a few recordings:

Voices of African Birds; Songs and Calls of 42 Species Found in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanganyika, Rhodesia, South Africa, the Congo, and Nigeria;

Mexican Bird Songs; The Voices of 74 of the Most Representative Birds of Mexico

   One can also hear the sounds made by other species:

The Songs of Insects; Calls of the Common Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Cicadas of the eastern United States;

Voices of the Night; The Calls of 34 Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada.

   Apart from sound recordings there  are even some games to be found in storage. For example, Professor Noggin's Birds of North America Card Game is located there.

   It is likely that many of these items will ultimately end up in storage facility near Toronto for a variety of reasons, some of which are noted above. If items can be retrieved from storage, it doesn't matter much where the facility is located. 

   There is now another reason for withdrawing the books relating to birds, in that those books contain bird names which are no longer acceptable and were written by authors such as Audubon who have been 'cancelled'. This is yet another argument with which I do not agree and I would hope the dwindling collections in the Western Libraries are not further 'weeded' because they contain ideas and names now deemed unacceptable.

Post Script:

   Most of the books related to ornithology were held in the "sciences" library, which is now known as the "Allyn & Betty Taylor Library" (there also was once a separate "Engineering Library." and another one for Medicine.) There continues to be a reason for collecting ornithological research in that the campus now contains the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (see my post, "For The Birds." )

    Professor Noggin's card game would have been collected for aspiring teachers and housed in the Education Library, which also no longer exists and is now the "Wampum Learning Lodge." There is a sizeable collection of children's books in storage, many of them collected for fledgling librarians and held in the library of the Graduate School of Library Science, which also no longer exists (see my earlier posts, "Landmark Books" and "100 Years of Newbery Medals.")

   Perhaps at some point in the future someone writing a history of UWO and Western might be interested in knowing about the richness of the collections held in libraries that have since disappeared. 

    As for the "NAMES" problem, I touched upon it in a post, the title of which hints at my position on the subject - "No More Name Changing". The American Ornithological  Society does not agree. See the "English Bird Names Project" where you will learn that, among other things, "The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people (eponyms), along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada."

   If you are just interested in birds, go back to Cornell and enjoy "All About Birds."

   If you are interested in eagles, such as the one above painted by Fuertes, see:

"Eagle Attacks Child", and "Eagle Update" or read about the Canadian "Eagle Man", Charles Broley. As well, the eagle and some insects are discussed more recently in, "Birds and Bugs." 

The Bonus:

  Someone, who perhaps knew my position regarding the re-naming of everything, sent me this 'bird-day card', which, I admit, weakens it a bit.

Ohio State University Press

    As the dreary weather continues, so does the search for good reading material. It is not usually found on the New York Times Best Seller List which, we have come to learn, does not contain books recommended by the NYT, but only those found in the various tabulations gathered by someone who works for the NYT. The best sellers are often not good, but they are popular, which also does not necessarily mean "good". As I type this on "Family Day", a holiday throughout much of Canada, it is interesting to note that Jennette McCurdy's, I'm Glad My Mom Died, is #4 on the "Non-Fiction" list. It may, or may not, be good, but apparently it is selling well. 

  About 12,000 books are published annually by University Presses, but they rarely appear on the lists in the NYT. An exception might have been, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, which was published by the University of Chicago Press and was at least somewhat popular and made into a film directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt. Given that you may not come across many university press catalogues, or pay much attention to the book ads in some high brow magazines, there may be 12,000 new books of which you are unaware. 

  It is to make you aware of potential sources for good books that I have provided short profiles of university presses over the past couple of years. I began way out on the west coast with the University of Washington and lately have focused on ones near by, ranging from the University of Minnesota to those even closer to Ontario: Penn State, Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan. I must soon begin including Canadian ones. 

  Today, the choice is from Columbus, Ohio. I should have mentioned earlier, and have done so in earlier posts, that not all university press books are unreadable and full of the jargon we civilians associate with those who reside on campuses. While many current university press publications deal with things like intersectionality and hyphenated identities, the older entries in the catalogues can be of interest and many of them can be read and enjoyed by people like us. 

   At the website of The Ohio State University Press, you can quickly learn about their publishing priorities. When I have posted about the university presses close by, I have indicated that there is often a regional focus which encompasses our area, where books of "local" interest are found. See, for example, Penn State's "Keystone Books" and Wayne State's, "Great Lakes Book Series." Books with a midwestern focus produced at Ohio State are found under the "Trillium" imprint, a floral emblem Ontarians will recognize.

   If you are especially interested in nature and the birds and fishes found close by Ontario, be sure to check the works of Milton Trautman. Although he didn't make it beyond Grade 8, he is renowned as an ornithologist and ichthyologist and wrote many articles of interest about the Bass Islands a little bit south of Pelee Island. His very big book about The Birds of Buckeye Lake can be downloaded for free, but his Birds of Western Lake Erie could cost you almost $300. For a long and interesting article about Trautman see: "The Last Naturalist: A Zoologist Happiest in the Fields and Streams of Ohio, Wrote Major Works About the State's Birds and Fishes," Parker Bauer, The American Scholar, April 21, 2022. 

OSU PRESS

"The Trillium imprint publishes books about Ohio and the Midwest in an effort to help the citizens of the state learn more about the unique history, the diverse culture, and the natural environment of the state of Ohio. Books published under this imprint will also help to fund our scholarly publishing program, and will aid in lowering the cost of the student textbooks we publish." 

The entire book can be read by clicking on this link. 

A Few More Buckeye Books

The United States of Ohio covers little-known facts about Ohio, such as how the state was the birthplace of both the National Football League and Major League Baseball and how it was Ohioans who led efforts toward racial integration in both sports. Readers will learn what makes the state a manufacturing and agricultural powerhouse—with both the largest tire company, Akron’s Goodyear, and the largest consumer products company, Cincinnati’s Procter & Gamble, based there. The state grows, processes, and builds on a level that far outpaces the size of its population or expanse of its borders. And it is the birthplace of many prominent US figures—from Thomas Edison to John Glenn to Neil Armstrong. From sports to a century’s worth of entertainment superstars to aviation and space exploration, Ohio’s best have made for America’s greatest stories—all captured here in a look at the Buckeye State and its impact on the other forty-nine.

“An exceptionally thorough history of white supremacy focused on Ohio but relevant nationwide. By analyzing supremacist influences on American history, from conquests of Native Americans to today’s alt right, the authors have created an eye-opening resource. Its accessible style will engage a broad readership.”—Deborah Levine, editor of American Diversity Report

“Falconry in Hawking Women touches on so many topics: the strange intimacies of memory training that bonded a bird with its handler, gender hierarchies, and especially the entangled freedom and constraint of poetics. Petrosillo’s rich practical knowledge of the sport illuminates a key component of medieval literature.” —Karl Steel, author of How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages.

The Bonus:

  

   University presses also often publish journals and one produced by OSU is: Inks: The Journal of the Comic Studies Society. 

For an article of local interest in this journal see: "Comics and Public History: The True Story of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars, " Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs, in Vol.4, No.1, Spring 2020, p.101.

It's Okay To Sploot

 

    Apparently the word "splooting" has gone viral on those platforms I do not frequent, but you probably do, so I won't go on about it. I am merely posting this to test my wife, who like millions of others, does not read this blog, although, unlike them, she contends she does. We have observed a lot of splooting lately, although we did not know it was called that. So, in the next few days when we again see the squirrels in our yard splooting and she does not use that term, I will know she is not taking advantage of the etymological nuggets I often provide and, as well, is fibbing.

  For those of you who have not been infected by the splooting virus, I will just say that it is a relatively new word that my spell checker is not recognizing, nor is the OED - yet.  Another English dictionary does and if you look in Collins English Dictionary, you will learn this: Splooting - verb (intransitive): (of an animal) "to lie flat on the stomach with the hind legs stretched out behind the body." It may be a derivative of "splat." 

   Many animals do it and corgis are known to, although they look to me like they are splooting when they are walking.  Squirrels have been spotted splooting a lot, which is what caused the word to go viral. Folks should not be concerned, however, since they are just cooling off during these hot times. Ours, however, are simply relaxing and waiting for us to throw the blue jays some peanuts. About squirrels I also will not go on since you will have read my earlier essay where I discuss their, colours, habits, occasional migratory endeavours, ability to swim and how I used to hunt and eat them (you and my wife should see "On Squirrels.")

Sources:
   You will already have many from TikTok, Facebook, etc., but here are two from newspapers. 
"What Does 'Splooting' Mean: And Why Are Squirrels Doing It?" Adela Suliman, Washington Post, Aug, 12, 2022.

For a BONUS, deep dive see: "City Tells New Yorkers: Don't Panic About 'Splooting' Squirrels: Yes It's a Real Word. Here's the Science (and Etymology) Behind It," Matthew Cantor, The Guardian, Aug. 12, 2022.  
 It is suggested that it may not be a neologism and actually dates back to the 1950s when it was used in an onomatopoeic manner in cartoons. Or, it could be simply the kind of word we hear pet enthusiasts use in high-pitched voices when offering their pets some "num-nums." "Grant Barrett, a lexicographer and co-host of the radio show A Way With Words, explains that the term comes from Doggo language, a form of canine-inspired internet-speak that has grown into its own tongue. Typically appearing on social media with pictures of dogs, the language features an array of cutesy words including “bork” (a version of “bark”), “mlem” (a kind of tongue movement) and “pupperino” (self-explanatory.)
Enough said.

No More Name Changing

 Sticks & Stones

"Sticks and Stones" is an English-language children's rhyme. The rhyme is used as a defense against name-calling and verbal bullying, intended to increase resiliency, avoid physical retaliation and to remain calm and good-living."

   "Sticks and Stones" - Wikipedia

"A common childhood chant meaning hurtful words cannot cause any physical pain and thus will be ignored or disregarded."

   My suggestion for solving the problem of problematic names is that we simply relearn the rhyme mentioned above, rather than relearn all names. And, it is far easier than eliminating all eponyms. I stated my position on the matter of names in this post - Names on the Land - and it has not changed, nor am I now embarrassed about what I wrote, or how it is written. Even if I was someone defined by an acronym such as, BIPOC, I don't think I would be traumatized by seeing the signs for Dundas Street or Plantation Lane.

Birds & Bees

   Those of you who have somehow been able to avoid the debates over toponyms will surely be surprised that the arguments now extend to the naming of birds and even insects (there are other "nyms" by the way. For example, it is proposed by some that the name of "British Columbia" should be changed and I think that BC is an example of a choronym. Other choronyms will need to be examined for excision, as will astionyms such as "Vancouver." Those of you who want to be among the first to display your self-righteousness over an old name newly discovered, as well as those of you who are beginning to worry about the amount renaming to be done, can start here.") I have already done more work than I planned, so here are the basics about the Birds and the Bees.

Bird Names for Birds

Awful Anna

 

   

You will find all you need to know at the link above (Bird Names for Birds.) It contains a spreadsheet of: 1) bird names, 2) who the bird was named for and 3) who it was named by. Biographical profiles are provided and here is why Anna's Hummingbird is up for elimination:

"Anna’s Hummingbird was named by René Primevère Lesson, a French naturalist in the early 19th century.  This bird was named to honor Anne d’Essling, wife of François Victor Masséna, Second Duke of Rivoli, who also has a hummingbird named for him by Lesson.

I am personally very fond of this bird species.  This is a bird that used to visit my feeders almost every day all year long in Phoenix, AZ.  I feel very attached to these chunky little hummingbirds, their beauty, their feisty behavior, and their spectacular courtship dives.

My problem with naming this wonderful bird for Anne d’Essling is that she really has nothing to do with this bird other than her husband’s ornithological interests.  Anne probably never saw a live hummingbird and it is unknown if she was even interested in them.  Surely she appreciated their beauty, but that is not known for certain."

Audubon, by the way, was an awful fellow. 

The Better Common Names Project

   For bugs, see the link above . I will just say here that the entomologists have moved into the field of etymology. Among the derogatory names the Task Force is currently examining is Gypsy Moth which is offensive to some Romani people. The Crazy Ant is also under the etymological microscope. 

   Rather than worrying about the elimination of the names of some insects, we should be more worried about the extinction of them. For that see: Insect Elegy. 

Post Script:

   To complicate matters I will introduce you to Stigler's Law of Eponymy which "holds that scientific laws and discoveries are never given the names of their actual discoverers.” It is a good reminder of just how collaborative and complex the processes of scientific discovery really are - the point here isn't so much that the wrong person gets credit as it is that the very idea that a single individual can get credit for a discovery is, well...a bit ridiculous."

   The same could be said about naming generally which was usually "collaborative and complex." Names were applied to the land by people who were often scoundrels, to honour people who were even worse and sometimes to satirize them. Some were attached in seriousness, others as a joke and not a few were chosen by those who may have been inebriated.  If the names are eliminated so is the history. Read Names on the Land before you discard Dundas. 

Sources: 

   "This Moth’s Name Is a Slur. Scientists Won’t Use It Anymore:The Entomological Society of America Will No Longer Refer to Common Species of Insects as “Gypsy Moths” and “Gypsy Ants,” Because Their Names are Derogatory to the Romani People." Sabrina Imbler, The New York Times, July 9, 2021.

   "Scientists are Renaming the ‘Gypsy Moth’ as Part of Broader Push to Root Out Offensive Monikers," Caroline Anders,  Washington Post, July 11, 2021.

   For Stigler's Law see the very good: "Stigler's Law: Why Nothing in Science is Ever Named After Its Actual Discover," Alasdair Wilkins, Gizmodo. 7/13/11

[It's hard not to think of Sayre's Law in this context: "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake."]

The Bonus:

   Country renaming has been continual over the centuries and some of the name changes are both reasonable and understandable. I was reminded of that fact by this recent headline and it is unlikely that you will recognize the name of the country: "Africa's Last Absolute Monarchy Convulsed by Mass Protests," John Eligon, NYT, July 2, 2021. The country is Eswatini, which was formerly known as "Swaziland." Other changes are noted in the article:

Nyasaland became Malawi on achieving independence in 1964. Months later, Northern Rhodesia achieved nationhood as the new republic of Zambia. In 1966, Bechuanaland was reborn as Botswana, and Basutoland changed its name to Lesotho. Rhodesia, following a 14-year period of white-minority rule that was not internationally recognized, became the new nation of Zimbabwe in 1980.

But several former British colonies in Africa — like Uganda, Kenya and Gambia — did not change their names upon gaining independence.

The Bonus Question: 

   Of all the country names on the planet, which one is in most need of reconsideration?
The United States.

Think about it. 

As soon, however, as the emergency of the war [ the American Revolutionary War] had grown less, the inadequacy of the name became apparent. United States of America was greatly lacking in that it applied no good adjective or term for the inhabitants of the country. It was unwieldy, inexact, and unoriginal. Although it rolled well from the tongue of an orator, not even the sincerest patriot could manage it in a poem or song."

Names on the Land, p.171.

A Murder of Crows

 

The Crows of Vancouver

   We have children living in Vancouver and when visiting them we always notice the crows. They are seen on the lawns and the picture above taken at one son's house, could have been duplicated at the other's. They are even more noticeable at the end of the day when thousands of them, like many other commuters, head for the suburbs. In the crows'  case, the destination is an office park in Burnaby where they will perch and poop. 

   We have been unable to visit because of the pandemic and when we were last there we had to leave prematurely because of the pandemic. I thought of the crows because of a recent article profiling Mr. Fidel Eligan, an immigrant from the Philippines, whose job it is to clean up after the crows. He is a fine fellow who gets up very early to ride his bike to Burnaby where, "the slight senior dons a hazmat suit, straps a 15-kilogram tank to his wiry back and spends hours spraying the lobbies, hallways and staircases his company is subcontracted to clean." Because of the pandemic, Mr. Eligan has been unable to visit his family back in the Philippines so "he has opted to take on an overtime shift disinfecting the buildings in the same office park each weekend." He remarks that "Maybe no crow, maybe me, no work," he says with a chuckle on a recent morning. "I enjoy the crows." The last sentence in the article is this one: "I'm always happy," he says of his life." We should all be so happy. 

   You may have read the article and know about the crows of Vancouver. If not, I will provide some good sources about them below. The subject will now change to the title - The Murder of Crows.

Nouns of Assemblage or Terms of Venery

   Oddly enough, there is not one term to refer to for a collection or group of things. The two above are often used along with, "Nouns of Multitude", "Group Terms" or "Collective Nouns", the last of which also has a more specific grammatical meaning. The need for such terms was noticed long ago and many of them were developed by those out hunting who required words for their descriptions. What does one call a large ???? of pheasants. That is how 'murder' came to be applied to crows, 'bouquet' to pheasants and 'skulk' to foxes. To learn more about all of this, turn to An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game by James Lipton. Venereal terms in this instance, generally refer to hunting and not what you are thinking. 

   Apart from the real 'nouns of assemblage', etc., there are imaginary ones invented by people such as you. The ones related to lawyers are likely to be unprintable in this family-friendly blog, but here are a few for those in the medical profession: "A Brace of Orthopedists", "A Rash of Dermatologists", "A Pile of Proctologists", and "A Smear of Gynecologists". One could go on, for example: "A Flush of Plumbers," "A Piddle of Puppies," "A Wince of Dentists" or A Column of Accountants." Assemble your own or invite a 'Batch of Buddies' or 'Circle of Crones' over to play a game which involves the creation of colourful venereal terms. 

Sources:

   For the article about Mr. Eligan and the Burnaby crows see: "How Do You Clean Up After a Murder of Crows," Mike Hager, The Globe and Mail, April, 5, 2021. A related video is found on YouTube.

   For additional information about the Vancouver roosts see:

"Crows of Vancouver: The Middle Way Between Biophobia and Biophilia," Christine Thuring. 

"Here's Where the Crows of Vancouver End Up Roosting Every Night," Bob Kronbauer.
The UBC Botanical Garden reveals "Why Are Crows Ruining my Lawn?"

   There are also roosts closer to home. For example:

"Ontario Towns Caw Over Noisy Crows," CBC.

"A Night Spent With Woodstock's Crow Man," Chatham Daily News, Tara Bowie.

It's Not Just Your Imagination: Why a Murder of 10,000 Crows Takes Over Ottawa in the Winter," PostMedia News, Jan.19, 2017.

  The always interesting Atlas Obscura contains a good piece: "An Ostentation of Peacocks, and Other Flowery Ways Medieval Hunters Grouped Birds," Eric Grundhauser, Nov. 24, 2015. 

   For another good article, with pictures and examples: "Collective Nouns for Birds: Why We Call It a Murder of Crows, Murmuration of Starlings and a Conspiracy of Ravens?" Paula Lester, Country Life, Jan. 13, 2020. 

For books, in addition to An Exaltation of Larks see:

A Conspiracy of Ravens: A Compendium of Collective Nouns for Birds, Bill Odie.

A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom, Matt Sewell.

A Murmuration of Starlings, Steve Palin.

and

 A Barrel of Monkeys: A Compendium of Collective Nouns For Animals. (Like The Conspiracy of Ravens, this one was assembled by the Bodleian Library.)

Bird Art

 John Gould

   I happened to notice the image above, which is from a Gould work found in the Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman which is being auctioned by Sotheby's. It is only one of the 269 items being offered and the starting bid for the Gould folio is $80,000. It is not the most expensive work in the lot. A 'Babe' Ruth baseball card is expected to fetch between $300,000 to $500,000 U.S.  You will have to hurry since the auction begins closing on Dec.16. Details about all of the books and manuscripts and odds and ends are easily found on the website of Sotheby's. 

   If you go to the Sotheby's site you will find enough to keep you busy for a long while. If you are interested in our subject for today - Bird Art - and the bird artist John Gould, then you need to visit The John Gould Ornithological Collection at the University of Kansas. Those of you who are tired of my prose, can go directly to the site to view thousands of beautiful bird illustrations.

   John Gould was born in Dorset in 1804 and over the years produced, along with his wife and Edward Lear, over 50 large illustrated volumes with alluring titles such as A Century of Birds From the Himalaya Mountains. He is an interesting character and it will be easy for you to learn more about him. 

   The story relating to how the Gould works came to reside in Kansas is also interesting.  It involves a compulsive collector of all things avian - Ralph Nicholson Ellis, Jr. He was so obsessed and so eager to spend his inheritance on bird books that his mother had him institutionalized and his wife filed for divorce. During all of these problems he had  his 65,000-item collection shipped in two boxcars which ended up on a siding in Kansas where the head of the Museum of Natural History in Lawrence, agreed to store them. The rest is history, as they say, and more details are provided in "The Story of the Gould Collection" by Karen Cook which is found on the University of Kansas website provided above.  For more about Ellis and his "galloping bibliomania" see Basbane's,  A Gentle Madness, p.21.

   With the financial assistance of the NEH, more than 6,000 drawings, lithographs and watercolours were digitized and  are viewable online. Here is the formal description of the collection:
This collection of the large-format bird books published by John Gould (1804-1881) also includes several thousand pieces of pre-publication artwork produced by Gould and his artists. It is part of the Ralph Nicholson Ellis, Jr. natural-history collection in Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.

The Bonus Material:

   If you are a 'birder' and interested in bird books, have a look at the Soffer Ornithology Collection at Amherst. Although the books have not been digitized it is interesting see the notes about the books which were provided by the collector. There are several Gould books listed.

   Perhaps you are wondering whether the university closer by has any Gould books. Here is the answer:

Books by John Gould in the Western University Libraries

(This list was gathered by me. For a thorough account you should check with a Western Librarian.)

Gould, John, 1804-1881. Birds of Asia. Illus. from the lithographs of John Gould. Text by A. Rutgers.   London : Methuen, 1969, c1968.

QL674.G668.(storage)

Gould, John, 1804-1881.  Birds of Australia. Ill. by John Gould. Text by Abram Rutgers. London, Methuen [1967]

QL693.G58.(storage)

Gould, John, 1804-1881. Birds of Europe. Illus. by John Gould. Text by A. Rutgers. London, Methuen [1966]

 QL690.A1G64.(storage)

 Gould, John, 1804-1881. Birds of New Guinea. Illus. from the lithographs of John Gould. Text by A. Rutgers. New York, St. Martin's Press [1971, c1970

 QL694.N4G68 1971.(storage)

Gould, John, 1804-1881. Birds of South America. Illus. from the lithographs of John Gould.  Text by A. Rutgers. London, Eyre Methuen [1972] 

QL689.A1G68 1972.(storage)

Lambourne, Maureen. Birds of the world : over 400 of John Gould's classic bird  illustrations / Maureen Lambourne.

London : Studio, 1992. QL674.L35 1992. (DBWOVR)

Gould, John, 1804-1881. John Gould's Birds of Great Britain / introduction by Maureen Lambourne. London : Eyre Methuen, 1980.

QL690.G7G76 1980.(storage)

Gould, John, 1804-1881. The Mammals of Australia / John Gould ; with modern notes by Joan M. Dixon. South Melbourne : Macmillan 1983.

QL733.G7 1983.(storage)

For biographical details see:

John Gould: The Birdman: A Chronology and Bibliography, by Gordon C. Sauer, 

QL31. G67S28 1982 (storage)

John Gould’s Contribution to British Art: A Note on Its Authenticity, Allan McEvery

QL31.G67M3 1973 (storage)

The Ruling Passion of John Gould: A Biography of the Bird Man, Isabella Tree, 1991

QL31.G67T74 1991 DBWSTK

See also Basbane’s A Gentle Madness… TX907.C67 2001, DBWSTK

Bird Eggs: If you are interested in beautiful pictures of eggs see: Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out Of Its Shell, Carrol Henderson. ( a copy is available at the Taylor Library at Western.)

"In Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs, Carrol L. Henderson uses the vast egg collection of Ralph Handsaker, an Iowa farmer, as the starting point for a fascinating account of oology and its role in the origins of modern birdwatching, scientific ornithology, and bird conservation in North America. Henderson describes Handsaker's and other oologists' collecting activities, which included not only gathering bird eggs in the wild but also trading and purchasing eggs from collectors around the world. Henderson then spotlights sixty of the nearly five hundred bird species represented in the Handsaker collection, using them to tell the story of how birds such as the Snowy Egret, Greater Prairie Chicken, Atlantic Puffin, and Wood Duck have fared over the past hundred years or so since their eggs were gathered. Photos of the eggs and historical drawings and photos of the birds illustrate each species account, Henderson also links these bird histories to major milestones in bird conservation and bird protection laws in North America from 1875 to the present. While wild bird conservation has come a long way in the last hundred years, this book is a call to action for conservationists because some modern-day threats to bird life are far more insidious than threats posed to birds a century ago by market hunting and the plume trade."--BOOK JACKET.

For additional research about birds at Western, visit AFAR, which I described here: For the Birds. 

Passenger Pigeons

     Back in 2014 the passenger pigeon was much in the news because the last one had died 100 years before. Martha was her name and she died in the Cincinnati Zoo (George was already gone). Like the parrot in the Monty Python sketch, she was dead, deceased, had ceased to be, was bereft of life and was no more. She was an ex-passenger pigeon. They are all extinct and there are no more.

     Even if you are not interested in birds you probably read some of those news accounts or you may have come across stories about how, many years ago, the flocks of passenger pigeons were sometimes so large they blocked out the sun and took days to pass. I just ran across one of those stories and it reminded me of the 2014 centenary of the extinction. This story takes place in Ontario and since I have not seen any references to it, I will present it here.

Pigeons on The Bruce

    W. Sherwood Fox was a classics scholar and a president of the University of Western Ontario. He was also very interested in nature which is why he was mentioned in my recent post about John Muir, about whom he wrote an essay in The Bruce Beckons: The Story of Lake Huron’s Great Peninsula. He also wrote one about the passenger pigeon in the same book - “In the Day of the Wild Pigeon,” (Chapter 9). Here is how it begins: 

     “Of the many gifts that Nature bestowed upon The Bruce [ the Bruce Peninsula] one in particular will never be seen there again. Indeed, it has vanished from the face of the earth. It is known now only in museums, in slim dockets of old records, and in the memories of a very few men of exceedingly great age.( p.94)

    The prevalence of the pigeon is noted by his father who arrived on The Bruce in the early 1870s:

     “A picture of his entry into this frontier household was vividly stamped on his memory by two events of the first day: as he stepped from the steamer to the shore and walked to his summer quarters a vast flock of pigeons were flying from the east to their nesting area on the Peninsula and were casting a dark, swiftly moving cloud over the land. At his very first meal, supper, he was served adult wild pigeon. At breakfast the next morning this was the main dish, and for dinner too and then again for supper; indeed, it was the only piece de resistance - and a tough one at that.” (p.95)
 
     The size of the roost was substantial even if one factors in a bit of local pride:

     “The people of the region took pride in believing that the Peninsula was ideal country for the pigeons. It was common opinion around Colpoy’s [Bay] - an opinion based solely on rumour - that the nesting and roosting colonies were so numerous as to form virtually an unbroken chain running northward to a point not far short of Tobermory. Of course, that was not quite true, but to express doubts about it was counted in the new settlement as disloyalty to the wonderful greatness of the Peninsula. However, the only colony that Father himself saw was very long indeed: it began near Chief’s Point on Lake Huron just north of the Sauble River and extended in a broad sinuous line north to within a couple of miles of Lake Berford. That is, it ran from the west side of Amabel Township to a point two or three miles within Albemarle and slightly less than that distance north of Wiarton….” That the colony covered several square miles was all too obvious, but how many one could only guess without making a special expedition to determine the exact figure.” (pp.95-96)

     Here is how the essay ends:

   “But never again will anyone, in The Bruce or elsewhere in North America, know a surfeit of the passenger pigeon. It has gone forever. In The Bruce its numbers began to dwindle rapidly in the last three years of the seventies; by 1885 the birds were scarce indeed. A resident of Red Bay whom I knew saw his last pigeon near there in 1893. As far as the whole Georgian Bay region is concerned the last word of the race’s obituary is this: in May of 1902 three pigeons - a pair and a single bird - were seen near Penetanguishene, Simcoe County.” (p.106)

Pigeons Over Fort Mississauga

   
    There is another Ontario account that indicates just how plentiful the pigeons were in the late 19th century.  It is easier to understand why there are no longer any passenger pigeons in the areas around metropolitan Toronto, however,  since there is not much evidence now of any nature at all and few trees in which any kind of bird could roost. Around 1860 the area was not so barren. This description is from Ross R. King’s The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada (1866):

     Early in the morning I was apprised by my servant that an extraordinary flock of birds was passing over, such as he had never seen before. Hurrying out and ascending the grassy ramparts, I was perfectly amazed to behold the air filled, the sun obscured by millions of pigeons, not hovering about but darting onwards in a straight line with arrowy flight, in a vast mass a mile or more in breadth, and stretching before and behind as far as the eye could reach.
     Swiftly and steadily the column passed over with a rushing sound, and for hours continued in undiminished myriads advancing over the American forests in the eastern horizon, as the myriads that had passed were lost in the western sky.
     It was late in the afternoon before any decrease in the mass was perceptible, but they became gradually less dense as the day drew to a close… The duration of this flight being about fourteen hours, viz. From four a.m. to six p.m., the column (allowing a probable velocity of sixty miles an hour) could not have been less than three hundred miles in length, with an average breadth, as before stated of one mile.
   During the following day and for several days afterwards, they still continued flying over in immense though greatly diminished numbers, broken up into flanks and keeping much lower, possibly being weaker and younger.

     There are other accounts of large flocks, so many of them in fact, that at least some of them must have been witnessed by reasonable observers who had no need to dramatically exaggerate. This particular account by King has been subjected to some scrutiny which is provided here:

     King never offered a numerical estimate, but Schorger, assigning two birds per square yard and a speed of sixty miles per hour, concludes that the flight involved an amazing 3,717,120,000 pigeons. At least three different scientists have each worked King’s data in recent years and come up with the same results as Schorger, although doubting that the pigeons would be flying at 60 mph as a normal speed during migration….Ken Brock of Indiana University Northwest created a graph showing the numbers of birds at speeds from 35 to 60 mph. But even at 35 mph, closer to the speed at which mourning doves fly, which is more unlikely given that the passenger pigeon was a far more accomplished flier than the dove , King witnessed over a billion birds passing over Fort Mississauga during the period of his observation.

Sources:

This is the place to begin: Project Passenger Pigeon. It is a tremendous website that is continually updated. There is a map one can click on to find information related to the area in which you reside. Canada is included and I learned that there are passenger pigeon skins, skeletons or mounts nearby at Western University and Medway High School.

This book is as good as its title: A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction. Joel Greenberg. Anyone will find it interesting. I was going to get a copy for my grandkids to show them what has been lost, but the story is too sad and there are too many “carnivals of slaughter.”

The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada is available in its entirety over the Internet. You will find the Fort Mississauga account at the beginning of Chapter VI, on p.121. See also A Feathered River… where several other descriptions are provided. The analysis of the report by King is found on p.6.

If you are really interested see Margaret Mitchell’s The Passenger Pigeon in Ontario. Although it was published in 1935, the University of Toronto Press has made it available over the Internet. Beginning on p.132 you will find a list of the “Last Reported Appearances in Ontario.” The last passenger pigeon reported in Middlesex County was in 1888 (p.135).