Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Alpaca

The alpaca has soft silky wool.
        Alpaca, a cud-chewing animal of the camel tribe, a native of the Andes, especially of the mountains of Chile and Peru, and so closely allied to the llama that by some it is regarded rather as a smaller variety than a distinct species. It has been domesticated, and remains also in a wild state. In form and size the alpaca approaches the sheep, but it has a longer neck. It is valued chiefly for its long, soft and silky wool, which is straighter than that of the sheep, and very strong. The wool is woven into fabrics of great beauty. All of these are known as alpaca, and they are used for shawls, clothing for warm climates, coat-linings and umbrellas. The flesh of the alpaca is pleasant to eat and is wholesome. 

Adder

       Adder a name given to certain poisonous vipers, as well as to certain harmless snakes. In the United States the term is applied to the copperhead and to the water moccasin, but in general, when the name is used without qualification, the adder of Great Britain, the only poisonous snake in the islands, is referred to.
       The puff adder or asp is a snake of South Africa whose bite is always fatal. The name is derived from the serpent's power of puffing out the upper part of its neck when irritated or alarmed. It is very thick and attains a length of four or five feet. The natives poison their arrows with its venom.

The Brave Crew teaches kids about the deadly puff adder!

Agouti

Agouti are found in South America and the West Indies.
       Agouti is the name of several rodents, forming a family by themselves. There are eight or nine species, all belonging to South America and the West Indies. The common agouti, or yellow-rumped cavy, is of the size of a rabbit. It burrows in the ground or in hollow trees, and lives on vegetables. It grunts like a pig, and is as greedy, so that where it is common it does much injury to crops. The agouti's flesh is white and palatable.

More About The Agouti From The Web:

Alligator: 14 Facts

Above are two crocodiles, American on top,
Chinese on bottom. 
The alligator a large reptile resembling the crocodile, dwelling in waters of tropical regions of the western hemisphere.
  1. Alligators frequent swamps and marshes and may be seen during the day basking on the ground in the heat of the sun. 
  2. Alligators are slow in growth and as they age, their growth rate slows down even more. Males are generally larger than females.
  3. Nearly fifty years are required for them to reach their full, potential length.
  4. They are active animals, and they prey upon whatever game comes their way. 
  5. Whenever they have captured an animal, they take it into the water and eat below the surface. 
  6. They are rather timid, in spite of their size, but defend themselves viciously if attacked. 
  7. When on shore, they rush with open mouth at their enemies and thrash their powerful tails from side to side. 
  8. The young are hatched by the sun from eggs, of which the female lays 200 or more in great heaps of vegetable matter.
  9. The alligators of South America were very often called caymans. 
  10. One species is known as the spectacled cayman, because of the high bony rim surrounding the orbit of each eye. 
  11. In the United States the alligator is not often seen north of Florida, but at one time it was not uncommon from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico. 
  12. There are several alligator "farms" in Florida. 
  13. Millions have been killed for sport and because of their hide and ivory. 
  14. The flesh of the alligator is often eaten, and the leather made from its hide is beautiful and costly.
More Alligator Facts From The Web:

Albatross: 10 Facts About

The albatross is a large web-footed sea bird of which there are a number of species.
  1. The bill of the albatross is straight and strong, the upper mandible hooked at the point and the lower one cut off squarely.
  2. In color its upper parts are grayish-white and the belly white.
  3. It is the largest sea bird known, some measuring seventeen and a half feet from tip to tip of their expanded wings.
  4. The albatrosses are found at the Cape of Good Hope and in other parts of the southern seas, where they have been known to follow ships for whole days without ever resting.
  5. They are met at great distances from the land, where they settle down on the waves at night to sleep.
  6. Whenever food is abundant the birds gorge themselves to such a degree that they can neither fly nor swim.
  7. Their food consists of small marine animals, carrion, fish spawn, etc. Only one large egg is laid, and that is placed in a rude nest made by scraping the earth into a ridge.
  8. The young are entirely white and covered with beautiful woolly down.
  9. Sailors regard the albatross with superstition and think that to kill one brings bad luck.
  10. Coleridge used this belief as the foundation of his poem, The Ancient Mariner.
Learn More About The Albatross From The Web:

Adjutant


The adjutant is a species of stork common in India, where it is protected by law because of its habit of destroying small noxious animals and acting as a scavenger. The adjutant has slate-colored back and wings, with white body and a nearly naked flesh-colored neck marked with black. It stands about five feet high, and has an enormous bill and an inflatable pouch under its neck. It was called adjutant bird because of the pompous airs it assumes, such as might be shown by a conceited army officer.

More About The Adjutant From The Web:

Addax

The horns of an addax are beautifully twisted.
Addax or Addas, a species of antelope of northeastern Africa. The horns of the male are about four feet long, beautifully twisted into a wide sweeping spiral of two turns and a half, with the points directed outward. The addax has tufts of hair on the forehead and throat, and large broad hoofs.

More About The Addax From The Web:
Animal Adventure Park Teach About Addax Antelope

Aardwolf

An aardwolf resembles a hyena.
       An aardwolf is a South African carnivorous animal, fox-like in size and habit, but having longer ears and a less bushy tail. It resembles a hyena in its sloping back and in its color, the body being gray, irregularly striped with black, but it has five toes on the fore feet, and the head is much more pointed and civet-like. It feeds on carrion, white ants and the like, but not on living vertebrates. It is timid and nocturnal in its habits, social but quarrelsome in its life, and tolerably swift in its pace, though usually trusting rather to burrowing than to flight.

More About The Aardwolf From The Web:

Aardvark

       An aardvark is an ant-eater found in South Africa. It is a stout animal, with long pig-like snout, tubular mouth, the usual termite-catching tongue, large ears, fleshy tail and short, bristly hair. The limbs are short and very muscular; on the fore feet are four, on the hind five, powerful claws, used in burrowing and in excavating the hills of the white ants on which it feeds. It is nocturnal in its habits and is very inoffensive and timid. When pursued, it can burrow itself out of sight in a few minutes, working inward with such rapidity as to make it almost impossible to dig it out. Its total length is about five feet, of which the tail is about one foot nine inches. Its dwelling is a burrow at a little distance from the surface, and thence it may be observed creeping at dusk. The flesh was considered a delicacy by indigenous peoples.

More About Aardvarks From The Web:
See the baby aardvark at the Cincinnati zoo.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

The Ostrich

The ostriches dining on cucumbers and milk.

The Ostrich 
by Burges Johnson

A QUEERER bird has ne'er occurred
Than is the ostrich, so I've heard.
Though women flock from west and east
To pluck him for their finery,
He differs much from man, for he
Don't care for plucking in the least.
(His hide is thick, his speed is quick,
And jiminy! how he can kick!)

His special pride is his inside:
It's double-lined with Bess'mer hide.
He has no fear of golden bucks
Or other dainties of that ilk;
He laughs at cucumbers and milk
O'er pie and Neuburg gayly clucks.
(There is no strife in his home life
O'er biscuit builded by his wife.)

His motto is, "I mind my biz,
Whatever troubles have ariz."
When, overcome with shame, he tries
To shun the glaring public light,
He thinks he's wholly hid from sight
If he has merely shut his eyes.
(That frame of mind you'll often find
Has currency with humankind.)

Ostriches play hide and seek.
 

The Gnu Wooing

"The Gnus Who's Who"
 
The Gnu Wooing 
by Burges Johnson

There was a lovely lady Gnu
Who browsed beneath a spreading yew
Its stately height was her delight;
A truly cooling shade it threw.
Upon it little tendrils grew
Which gave her gentle joy to chew.
Yet oft she sighed, a-gazing wide,
And wished she knew another Gnu
(Some newer Gnu beneath the yew
To tell her tiny troubles to).

She lived the idle moments through,
And days in dull succession flew,
Till one fine eve she ceased to grieve
A manly stranger met her view.
He gave a courtly bow or two;
She coolly looked him through and through:
" I fear you make some slight mistake
Perhaps it is the yew you knew!"
(Its branches blew and seemed to coo,
" Your cue, new Gnu; it's up to you!") 

Said he: "If guests you would eschew,
I'll say adieu without ado;
But, let me add, I knew your dad;
I'm on page two, the Gnus' Who's Who."
"Forgive," she cried," the snub I threw!
I feared you were some parvegnu!
'Tis my regret we've never met
I knew a Gnu who knew of you."
(This wasn't true what's that to you?
The new Gnu knew; she knew he knew.)

"Though there are other trees, 'tis true,"
Said she, "if you're attracted to
The yews I use, and choose to chews
Their yewy dewy tendrils, do!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The end is easily in view:
He wed her in a week or two.
The "Daily Gnus " did quite enthuse;
And now, if all I hear is true,
Beneath that yew the glad day through
There romps a little gnuey new.

The two gnus meet and greet.

Concerning The Slowness of The Sloth

A sloth hangs by the branches of a tree.
 
CONCERNING THE SLOWNESS OF THE SLOTH
by Burges Johnson


MY child, how doth
The gentle Sloth
Improve each hour where'er he go'th?
'Tis true that he,
Unlike the Bee,
Seeks not for honey ceaselessly.

He's not inclined
To slave, I find,
For others, like the faithful hind;
Nor as the ant
To toil and pant
He either won't or else he can't.

Yet there are chaps
Like him, perhaps,
Crushed down 'neath heavy handicaps,
And 'tis our place
The facts to face
And honestly to view his case.

Where'er he goes,
He always knows
He has no full supply of toes;
That's why he's not
Inclined to trot,
Lest he should harm the few he's got.

The very crown
Of his renown
Is walking branches upside down.
It is a ruse
That don't conduce
To hurry. Also, what's the use?

And if you'll look
In any book
You'll find him, if I'm not mistook,
Entitled thus:
Didactylus,
Or A-i Arctopithicus.

That name, I guess,
You will confess,
Would render you ambitionless!
So, goodness knowth,
That's why I'm loath
To cast aspersion on the Sloth.

A sloth dreams of sleep...