Cardinal

A nesting pair of cardinals by Jo Alwood

       The cardinal or redbird, a showy North American finch, with fine red plumage and a crested head. A black patch is conspicuous on each side of the bill. The cardinal whistles beautifully, and his clear, ringing note is a great favorite, especially in the Southern states, where the bird is often kept in captivity.

       The birds are found in Southeastern Canada and in Eastern United States from New York to Florida. They are permanent residents of certain districts south of the Ohio River, and have been charmingly written about by James Lane Allen in his Kentucky Cardinal. They are easily tamed, and in city parks often learn to come to the call of people, who feed them with nuts.

More About Cardinals From The Web:

• Cardinal Rule - Keep Feeding FYV
• Bird of the Month - Northern Cardinal
• Mr. Cardinal Wants His Peanut!

Ferret

       The ferret is a flesh-eating animal, closely allied to the polecat, about fourteen inches in length, of a pale yellow color, with red eyes. It is a native of Africa, but has been introduced into America and Europe. It cannot, however, live long in a cold climate. Ferrets are used for hunting rabbits and for killing rats and mice. They rarely devour the animals which they attack, but kill them and suck their blood. Their slender bodies enable them to enter burrows, but unless muzzled the ferrets are apt to leave their victims behind after sucking their blood.

More About Ferrets From The Web:

• Ferrets are Funny Than Cats and Dogs
• Black-footed Ferret vs. Prairie Dog
• Adorable Ferrets! A Big Mosstake

Eland

       Eland, the Dutch name for a large African antelope. It is the size of a full-grown horse. The animal is hunted for its hide, which is used for harness, and for its flesh, which is suitable for the table. It is gentle and easily captured, and consequently is threatened with extinction.

Africa's largest antelope, the eland by PHALANX47

Dormouse

Dormice are becoming rare.

       A dormouse is a small rodent, common in Europe, its name means "sleepy one." These little animals inhabit temperate and warm countries and subsist entirely on vegetable food. Their pace is a kind of leap, but they have not the activity of squirrels. While feeding, they sit upright and carry the food to the mouth with their paws. The dormice pass the winter in a torpid state, reviving only for a short time on a warm, sunny day, when they take a little of their hoarded stores and then relapse into sleep. Among the different species are the fat dormouse and the garden dormouse.

More About Dormice From The Web:

• 10 Things You Didn't Know About Dormice
• Dormice are thriving in Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserves
• Dormice In Danger!

Dipper

       The dipper, a remarkable little singing bird, closely related to the thrushes, but resembling the wrens in appearance, especially in its up-tilted tail. It is covered with very close, water-proof plumage and lives about streams, often in the vicinity of waterfalls, into which it dashes in a perfectly fearless manner. At times it goes entirely through a cascade and finds in the crevices of the rocks back of the water, dry places where it can build its dome-shaped nests and rear its young. The dipper is a rather dark bird with a white breast, and as it moves about it jerks its tail upward and bobs its head downward. There are several species of dippers found in Asia, northern Europe and the high regions in the western parts of the United States and Canada.

Flounder

       The flounder is one of the most common of the flat sea fishes, found along the shores  of almost all countries. The body, which is extremely flattened at the sides, has the upper side dark and spotted and the under side white. Both eyes are on the upper side; and one is set lower than the other, giving the face a twisted appearance. The flounder is esteemed for its flesh.

Facts About Flounders by Deep Marine Scenes.

Duck-Billed Platypus

Platypus by the river's edge.

Platypus rolled up.

       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.

More About Platypus From The Web:

• The Strange Platypus
• 7 places to see platypus in the wild
• Rare platypus at San Diego Zoo

Paper Church Silhouettes

       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.

• Find more stained glass windows to color at Color The Bible
• Craft stained glass windows from melted crayons

Egret

       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.

More About Egrets from The Web:

• The Great Egrets of Missouri
• 10 Egrets and Herons Found in North America

The Great Egret During Nesting Season 

by Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Fish

       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:

1. Fish constitute the class Pisces, which is divided into about 13,000 species. 
2. All are back-boned animals, living in water. 
3. 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. 
4. This form of body is well adapted to meet the pressure of water. 
5. The body is generally covered with scales or bony plates, though a few species lack such covering.
6. 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.
7. They have cold, red blood, which is pumped through the system after being purified by passage through the gills. 
8. The backbone is composed of vertebrae, and is so loosely jointed that the body can be turned and bent freely in all directions. 
9. 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.
10. The skeletons of some families of fishes are not of bone, but of a strong, thick cartilage.
11. 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. 
12. Those in temperate or tropical waters are more brilliantly colored and strikingly marked than the inhabitants of colder waters. 
13. In most species the colors increase in intensity and beauty during the breeding season, much as the plumage of a bird grows bright. 
14. Some fish feed on both animal and vegetable matter, others are flesh-eaters, and some eat only vegetable food. 
15. They reproduce by eggs, these being laid in shallow water. 
16. 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. 
17. Millions of eggs are laid by a single fish, but the young are preyed upon by so many enemies that relatively few survive. 
18. In size fish vary from tiny minnows, an inch or so in adult length, to man-eating sharks thirty-five feet long. 
19. Whales (which see) are mammals, though they bear certain resemblances to fish. 

More About Fish from The Web:

• Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium
• Tennessee Aquarium
• St. Louis Aquarium
• Chicago Aquarium
• National Aquarium

More About Fish from Our Blogs:

• "F" is for fish" alphabet coloring page
• Color these fish in a bowl

Falcon: 8 Fun Facts

A falcon is a hawk famous for its strength, symmetry and remarkable power of flight.

8 Fun Facts About Falcons:

1. Its claws are sharp and hooked, its short, stout legs are heavily feathered and its curved beak is armed with a sharp point. 
2. 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. 
3. The Greenland falcon is one of the best-known.
4. Falconry, or Hawking, is the pursuit of game by means of trained falcons or hawks. 
5. The birds are trained to seize tlieir prey and return with it to their masters. 
6. In the Middle Ages falconry was the favorite sport of princes and nobles; and, as ladies could engage in it, it became very prevalent.
7. 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. 
8. 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.

Paul Manning talks about the art of falconry.

Elk: 9 Important Facts

       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:

1. 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.
2. It has been hunted for its flesh, hide, teeth and antlers, especially by Native Americans.
3. Natives covered their tepees and lodges with the wapiti's skin, and used the flesh for food. 
4. 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. 
5. Game laws now protect surviving wapiti, and the membership badges of that order are an imitation elk's head.
6. 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. 
7. 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. 
8. The animal has a magnificent pair of branching antlers, which curve outward and backward, but have the tines pointing forward. 
9. 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.

More From The Web About Elk:

• The American Elk or Wapiti
• Elk: Cervus canadensis by Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Emu

       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. 

More About Emus From The Web:

• Baby Emu is 100% Perfect
• The hardest part about having emus in your yard
• How dangerous are emus, really?

Dragonfly:

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. 

More About Dragon Flies From The Web:

• Beneficials In The Garden: Dragonflies
• Dragonflies: Dainty But Deadly
• Introduction to the Odonata: Dragonflies and Damselflies

More About Dragon Flies From Our Blogs:

• "Bless The Lord" coloring page with a dragonfly...
• "The Butterfly's Ball" sheet music and lyrics
• How to paint a laser cut dragon fly...

Electrical Fish

       Electric catfish. The electric catfish of the Nile was

 well known to the ancient 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 electric eel, 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.

• Electric eel needs to stun prey
• How rays and sharks use electricity
• Introduction to Electricity - video for kids
• Electrical catfish turns on light bulb!
• Here's What Will Happen if Your Touch an Electrical Eel

How do fish make electricity? by Eleanor Nelsen.

Circus Elephants Paper Cuts

The circus clown and tight rope walker balance on an elephant with monkey.

       Vintage paper cuts of an era ended, these circus elephants are now only found in books. I've restored these for your scrapbooks only. Enjoy.

• Read 33 facts about elephants and then visit the links to retired circus elephants as well.
• Search tags for more circus themed posts
• Listen to a story about a special little brave elephant...

Circus elephants walk behind each other into the arena.

Bear: 13 Furry Facts

Find all kinds of bears to color at
The Crayon Palace.

      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:

1. Bears have massive heads, extended narrow jaws and large teeth.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Bears are clumsy in their movements; yet they can run rapidly, and most of them climb trees or scramble over rocks with remarkable speed.
5. They usually make their home in some cave or crevice among rocks, or in hollow trees. 
6. There, in the early spring, the young ones, usually two in number, are born.
7. Each bear family usually keeps pretty well to itself, instead of hunting in packs as the wolves do.
8. Bears will eat nearly all kinds of food.
9. 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.
10. Almost all bears eat fish and reptiles, and some species live almost entirely on fish.
11. The pelt of bears were much valued for furs, overcoats and rugs at one time
12. The flesh was used for food in many parts of the world.
13. Bear fat and claws are not only valuable but illegal due to the threat of extinction.

Learn More About Bears from The Web:

• All the Different Types of Bears
• Differences Between Grizzly, Brown, and Kodiak Bears
• California wants its grizzly bears back
• Nora's second chance, study polar bear data

Craft Bears:

• The Three Bears Silhouettes (template)
• Fairy Friends Paper Cuts (templates)
• Rigmarole and illustrated bear poem page for your scrapbooks

St. Patrick's Day Silhouettes

       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.

Halloween Mask Silhouettes

Samples of how the masks will look once these are cut from black construction paper.

        Teachers or guardians will need to enlarge the patterns to fit their student's head. I've included a picture above to show what these paper Halloween masks will look like once they have been cut from black construction paper. Students may wish to include more details on their masks drawn with a white crayon. Attach a string to hold the masks in place with a stapler on either side of these scary little faces.

       The angry cat seems like a Halloween classic to me, but, the angry bunny rabbit? Oh, well these are very old patterns folks. Sometimes cultural norms slip through the cracks of time...

The angry black cat, I understand.

The angry bunny? Not so much.

Wildlife Stencils for The Classroom

Stencil of bird in flight with out-stretched wings.

    Be sure to click directly on the stencils in order to download the largest file size. These four wildlife stencils for educators to use in their classrooms are duty free: bluebird, jay, running rabbit and a squirrel holding an acorn.

Stencil of a jay sitting on the limb of a tree.

Stencil of a running rabbit or hare.

Stencil of a squirrel holding a hazel nut.

Falling Leaves, Squirrels Up Trees...

Silhouettes of oak leaves.

       These two pages of Fall/Autumn paper cuts are by Beckwith. You may cut them from cardboard and trace around them to create fall vignettes in your classroom or paper cut-outs for crafting with young students.

Silhouette of squirrel eating acorns in a tree.

Echidna

       The echidna or spiny ant-eater, a genus of Australian toothless mammals, in size and general appearance resembling a large hedgehog, excepting that the spines are longer, and the muzzle is long and slender, with a small opening at the end through which a long, flexible tongue can be thrust. The echidna sleep during the day.

       It has short, strong legs and its five toes are armed with powerful claws so that it can burrow easily in the ground. It feeds upon ants and other insects, which it catches with its long, sticky tongue. It is nearly allied to the oraithorhynchus or duckbill, and the two form a peculiar class of animals, having in their structure some of the peculiarities that mark mammals, birds and reptiles.

More About Echidna From The Web:

• Echidna Babies Are Real Weird by Animallogic
• Living Ball of Spikes!

Foxhound

       A foxhound is a high-spirited hound that has a keen scent, remarkable perseverance and great endurance. It is easily trained and becomes very skillful in hunting foxes. Somewhat smaller than the staghound, the foxhound seems to be a cross between the staghound or the bloodhound and the greyhound. It is commonly of a white color, with patches of black and tan, has short hair, large and straight limbs and large, thin ears. Its usual height is about twenty inches.

More About Foxhounds from The Web:

• Read About The Breed: AKA - American Foxhound
• The English Foxhound At A Glance

Flamingo: 10 Fun Facts

The flamingo is a strange-looking bird, whose body is rather smaller than that of the stork, but which, owing to its great length of neck and leg, measures on average six feet, from head to foot. 

10 Fun Facts About Flamingos:

1. There are several different species found in Mediterranean and tropical countries, all more or less red in color and varying in size. 
2. They migrate in V-shaped flocks. 
3. Their necks are extremely slender and flexible, and their big, naked bills are bent abruptly down, as if broken near the middle.
4. In feeding, the bird stands nearly erect, thrusting its neck downward and burying its bill and perhaps its head in the water, with the top of the bill downward. 
5. It then sways its head from side to side, causing currents of water to pass back and forth through the bill, where fine horny projections strain out the seeds and the small animals that are stirred up from the bottom by the bird's feet. 
6. The birds nest in the warm countries in large colonies, upon muddy flats near the water level. 
7. Their nests are big cones of reeds and sticks, cut off squarely at such a height that the mother bird can sit with her legs dangling down the sides, though she usually sits with them folded up beneath her.
8. The flamingo of North America nests in the latitude of Florida. 
9. The male has a light red plumage, whose large feathers have black quills; the females are pale pink and the young nearly white. 
10. As is the case with other beautiful birds, their handsome plumes made them sought by hunters in the past and laws have been passed for their protection.

More About Flamingos From The Web:

• Captured Flamingos Get Hydrotheraphy
• How baby flamingos get their pink color

Flamingos at Lake Nakuru by Ruedi Abbuhl.

Bower-bird: The Great "Seducer"

       The bower-bird , a name given to several different birds living in Australia or the Pacific islands. They are so called because in the nesting season they build remarkable bowers to serve as places of resort. These are constructed on the ground, usually under overhanging branches in secluded parts of the forest. There the male birds meet and dance and go through the queer antics that are supposed to attract their mates. One species even uses small shells for decoration; another bird builds a tent-like structure around a sapling, using for rafters the stem of an orchid that continues to blossom after it is picked; still another uses only feathers. This fondness for bright things is not confined to the bower-birds, though no other birds seem to possess it to so great a degree. The magpie may be mentioned as an American illustration of this trait.

More About Bower-bird From The Web:

• Bowerbirds Pull Off a Jewel Heist
• Satin Bowerbird part 1 and part 2 by SuperBruceallen
• The Vogelkop Bowerbird: Nature's Great Seducer