The duck-billed platypus also called ornithorynchus, the lowest of the mammals, a peculiar creature, living in the quiet streams of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. It is about twenty inches long, rather slender and covered with brown hair. Its head is small and instead of a nose it has a horny bill, resembling a duck's with nostrils, however, at the extreme end, enabling the animal to breathe with only the tip of his bill out of the water. The male has on each heel a sharp, horny spur, which he uses for defense. Duckbills usually live in large colonies in the banks of streams, each pair inhabiting its separate burrow. The food consists chiefly of insects and worms, which the animal comes out to get at night. On land, duckbills walk about very clumsily on their short legs and webbed feet, but in water they move very rapidly.
These paper cuts or silhouettes of the front and back of a church, plus stained glass windows would look lovely in any Sunday School. I've restored them for students and teachers, enjoy.
Egret, the name of a species of wood herons. The feathers on the rear part of the bird's back are long, reaching to the end of the tail, and even beyond at certain seasons. They are more beautiful than the feathers of the common heron. The American egret is about thirty-seven inches long, has soft plumage, a smooth head and twelve trailing feathers. It is one of the most beautiful of the native birds. In the past, the egrets have been so much hunted for their white flowing plumes, which women wear for ornament, that they were endangered. Laws now prohibit the wearing of egret feathers.
Fish. Among the vertebrates (back-boned animals), the fish are lowest in order of intelligence, but among the most important from an economic standpoint. From earliest historic times men have used the flesh of fish as food, and today there is hardly a country in the world whose people do not include it in their diet.
How to fish swim in harmony? by TED-Ed
19 Characteristics of Fish:
Fish constitute the class Pisces, which is divided into about 13,000 species.
All are back-boned animals, living in water.
Notwithstanding the numerous species, fishes show a remarkable uniformity in appearance, for the greater number have elongated, compressed bodies, tapering toward both ends, with paired fins to take the place of limbs.
This form of body is well adapted to meet the pressure of water.
The body is generally covered with scales or bony plates, though a few species lack such covering.
With the exception of a small family of fresh-water fish, which possess both lungs and gills, fish breathe wholly by means of gills, which are designed to extract oxygen from the water.
They have cold, red blood, which is pumped through the system after being purified by passage through the gills.
The backbone is composed of vertebrae, and is so loosely jointed that the body can be turned and bent freely in all directions.
Fish possess in their air bladder, or swim bladder, an organ peculiar to themselves, which they are able to fill or empty at will. This bladder enables the fish the ability to control their buoyancy.
The skeletons of some families of fishes are not of bone, but of a strong, thick cartilage.
Geological investigations show that there have been many thousands of species of fish now wholly extinct, but those that survive are distributed throughout almost all the waters of the earth.
Those in temperate or tropical waters are more brilliantly colored and strikingly marked than the inhabitants of colder waters.
In most species the colors increase in intensity and beauty during the breeding season, much as the plumage of a bird grows bright.
Some fish feed on both animal and vegetable matter, others are flesh-eaters, and some eat only vegetable food.
They reproduce by eggs, these being laid in shallow water.
The eggs are usually left uncared for, though some species, like the stickleback, gather the eggs in nests and protect and care for their young.
Millions of eggs are laid by a single fish, but the young are preyed upon by so many enemies that relatively few survive.
In size fish vary from tiny minnows, an inch or so in adult length, to man-eating sharks thirty-five feet long.
Whales (which see) are mammals, though they bear certain resemblances to fish.
A falcon is a hawk famous for its strength, symmetry and remarkable power of flight.
8 Fun Facts About Falcons:
Its claws are sharp and hooked, its short, stout legs are heavily feathered and its curved beak is armed with a sharp point.
The peregrine falcon was the one most used in hunting game (see below), but there are several other species that are almost equally powerful and graceful.
The Greenland falcon is one of the best-known.
Falconry, or Hawking, is the pursuit of game by means of trained falcons or hawks.
The birds are trained to seize tlieir prey and return with it to their masters.
In the Middle Ages falconry was the favorite sport of princes and nobles; and, as ladies could engage in it, it became very prevalent.
In France it reached its height under Francis I, whose grand falconer had under him an establishment of fifteen nobles and fifteen falconers, costing annually about 40,000 livres.
In Britain it was practiced among the Anglo-Saxons, but grew still more in favor after the Norman Conquest, only to decline in the seventeenth century, when firearms came into general use. However, it has never wholly died out in Europe.
Elk, a name applied to two members of the deer family, found respectively in the European and North American continents. Both species have been hunted until their numbers have been greatly reduced.
9 Important Facts About Elk:
American Elk, or Wapiti (native name). This noble game animal once ranged over the continent from the Carolinas to Alaska, but it is now seen only in the Rocky Mountains from the Northern United States into Alberta.
It has been hunted for its flesh, hide, teeth and antlers, especially by Native Americans.
Natives covered their tepees and lodges with the wapiti's skin, and used the flesh for food.
Later, large numbers of the animals were slaughtered for their teeth by white men which were used by the Elks' fraternal order as membership badges.
Game laws now protect surviving wapiti, and the membership badges of that order are an imitation elk's head.
The American elk is a close relative of the European red deer, but is much larger, standing five feet high at the shoulder, and weighing as much as 1,000 pounds.
Its upper parts are yellowish-brown, and its sides are gray; there is a whitish patch on each buttock, and the red and black neck has a thick growth of coarse black hair.
The animal has a magnificent pair of branching antlers, which curve outward and backward, but have the tines pointing forward.
Grasses, weed and leaves form the wapiti's food.
More Types of Elk:
European Elk. This, the largest deer of Europe, is very similar to the moose of the United States. It stands about six feet in height at the shoulders, has a thick, large, clumsy head and broad, flat horns. It is grayish-brown in color, some parts being lighter than others. It is still found in many of the wilder parts of Europe, as it is rigidly protected by law. It is easily tamed and has been used as a beast of burden in Sweden.
The Irish elk was a large animal which is now extinct. It was distinguished by its enormous antlers, the tips of which were sometimes as much as eleven feet apart. Its remains are found not only in Ireland but in Scotland and England and on the Continent.
The emu is a three-toed Australian bird, related to the ostrich, cassowary and rhea. It is large, sometimes weighing 130 pounds, and is distinguished by the absence of a casque, or helmet. Its feathers, which are double, are of a dull, sooty brown; those about the neck and head are hairlike in texture. There are two plumes to each quill and the bird has small, useless wings, but it can run with great speed and uses this method of escape from enemies on the plains. If brought to bay it lights viciously, kicking backward with much force. It is very easily tamed and may be kept out of doors in temperate climates.
Superstitions: In the United States, the dragon fly was once known as the devil's darning needle, but the dragon flies are harmless insects, and not even the butterflies are more beautiful and graceful.
The dragonfly are a family of beautiful insects, with large, gauzelike wings, that give it powerful and rapid flight. The dragon fly lays its eggs in the water, where the larvae and pupae live on aquatic insects. The larval stage lasts for a year. The pupae are always hungry. They propel themselves through water by drawing it into their bodies and throwing it out again.
Electric catfish. The electric catfish of the Nile was
well known to theancient Egyptians. The Egyptians
reputedly used the electric shock from them when
treating arthritis pain. They would use only smaller fish,
as a large fish may generate an electric shock from
300 to 400 volts. The Egyptians depicted the fish in
their mural paintings and elsewhere; the first known
depiction of an electric catfish is on a slate palette
of the predynastic Egyptian ruler Narmer about
3100 BC. It was suitably called "angry catfish" in
ancient Egyptian.
An electrical fish is any fish that gives an electric shock. One of the best known is the electriceel, a native of South America. It is of nearly equal thickness throughout and grows to the length of six feet.
A species of catfish about four feet long that lives in the Nile, and also species of torpediniformes (rays), one of which is sometimes found on the eastern coast of the United States, are also electric.
The seat of several organs that give the shock are located in different parts of these fish's bodies. After a few discharges, the current is weakened, and an interval of rest is required for a new storage of force.
A bear is a large shaggy beast of prey closely allied to the dog in structure and having many features in common with the badgers, weasels and skunks.
13 Furry Bear Facts:
Bears have massive heads, extended narrow jaws and large teeth.
The body appears more bulky than it really is, because of the looseness of the skin, the length of the coarse fur, the stumpy tail and the comparative shortness of the legs.
The limbs are furnished with long and powerful claws for use in digging, fighting and climbing trees. The senses of hearing and smell are very well developed.
Bears are clumsy in their movements; yet they can run rapidly, and most of them climb trees or scramble over rocks with remarkable speed.
They usually make their home in some cave or crevice among rocks, or in hollow trees.
There, in the early spring, the young ones, usually two in number, are born.
Each bear family usually keeps pretty well to itself, instead of hunting in packs as the wolves do.
Bears will eat nearly all kinds of food.
They are fond of fruits, berries, herbs, roots, eggs, ants and honey. They capture and devour small animals in the woods and often raid human settlements in search of young pigs, calves, colts and sheep.
Almost all bears eat fish and reptiles, and some species live almost entirely on fish.
The pelt of bears were much valued for furs, overcoats and rugs at one time
The flesh was used
for food in many parts of the world.
Bear fat and claws are not only valuable but illegal due to the threat of extinction.
I will collect for this post, those few St. Patrick's Day paper cuts that I happen across in the archives. So far there are: angelic harps, a vintage pipe with shamrocks and a rabbit nibbling on a piece of clover.
St. Patrick Silhouettes for the classroom and child paper crafts.
