Some of you know Vadim Gorbatov’s painting of a Turcoman falconer waiting out a sandstorm with tazi and saker. Sir Terence Clarke just sent this excellent little video of hunting there. My Ataika, though born in Kazakhstan, is rather a Turkmeni type. And the falconry is almost just like the kind we practice but for …
Tag: Taxonomy
Old- Fashioned Ornithology
Before there was Birding, there was Collecting, with a shotgun. Many people don’t realize that type specimens still must be collected to be valid; even a blood sample for DNA is not considered sufficient. And skins of common birds that die are useful for education, and as beautiful as a kind of mortal art. The …
VN
Arthur Wilderson, who knows more about guns that almost anyone, reminded me that Vladimir Nabokov died 36 years ago this week. After I praised his English, more fluid and colloquial than his only rival as a non- native English- speaking novelist in the language (VN would have said American I think), Arthur agreed: “I was …
Nomenclature
Annie Davidson sent our tiny aging, nostalgic, and usually goofy Zoo group (we have known each other since, what, 1970?) a provocative essay contra the Linnaean binomial system. I think she was poking a stick in an anthill, but I am afraid it pushed a few buttons! I was provoked to editorialize… “The author’s criticisms …
Two old (or old- fashioned) naturalists, and new photo series
Two old farts in the bar courtyard. John Wilson is an old style bug catching (or photographing) “stamp collector” naturalist like me, an Ohioan who retired from an Audubon sanctuary there to a remote homestead in the Mags– somebody I can talk bugs, birds, and taxonomy with! Luckily he likes beer too. I am starting …
New Mammals!
I mentioned that Darren has been busy but I would hardly have imagined his news: an announcement of not just one or two but many “new” large mammal species from Amazonia. All are the discoveries of Marc van Roosmalen, and appear at Tetrapod Zoology with his permission. Marc’s new website, full of material, is here. …
Around the Web
Of course I have still been at least crawling around the web and have found much entertainment and as always a little offense. I’ll direct you to some goodies, but I hope that in my absence you have visited not only friends linked to here but also O &P, Heidi, Mary, Chas, Roseann, Pluvi (returned …