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Réunion Harrier
The Réunion harrier (''Circus maillardi''), also known as Réunion marsh harrier, is a species of bird of prey belonging to the marsh harrier group of harrier (bird), harriers. It is now found only on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, although fossil material from Mauritius has been referred to this species. It is known locally as the ''papangue'' or ''pied jaune''. The Malagasy harrier (''C. macrosceles'') of Madagascar and the Comoro Islands was previously treated as a subspecies of this bird but is increasingly regarded as a separate species. The Réunion harrier appears to be declining in numbers and it is classed as an endangered species. Description It is about 42–55 cm long; the female is around 3–15% larger than the male. The male has a blackish head and back with white streaks. The underparts, underwings and rump are white and the tail is grey. The wings are grey and black with a white leading edge. Females and immatures are dark brown with a white rump ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Verreaux
Jules Pierre Verreaux (24 August 1807 – 7 September 1873) was a French botanist and ornithologist and a professional collector of and trader in natural history specimens. He was the brother of Édouard Verreaux and nephew of Pierre Antoine Delalande. Career Verreaux worked for the family business, Maison Verreaux, established in 1803 by his father, Jacques Philippe Verreaux, at Place des Vosges in Paris, which was the earliest known company that dealt in objects of natural history. The company funded collection expeditions to various parts of the world. Maison Verreaux sold many specimens to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle to add to its collections. In 1830, while travelling in modern-day Botswana, Verreaux witnessed the burial of a Tswana people, Tswana warrior. Verreaux returned to the burial site under cover of night to dig up the African's body where he retrieved the skin, the skull and a few bones. Verreaux intended to ship the body back to France and so prepar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ravine De La Grande Chaloupe Important Bird Area
Ravine de la Grande Chaloupe Important Bird Area is an 825 ha tract of land on the island of Réunion, a Overseas departments and territories of France, French territory in the western Indian Ocean. Description The IBA lies on the coast at the north-western end of the island, between the capital of Saint-Denis, Réunion, Saint-Denis and the Communes of France, commune of La Possession. It encompasses the steep-sided valley that contains the village of La Grande Chaloupe at its mouth, along with the mouth of Ravine à Jacques nearby. Habitats include one of the last remnants of the island's native lowland forest, as well as Secondary growth, secondary grassland and thickets of introduced species, introduced vegetation, with some coastal cliffs and rocky shoreline. About 40% of the site is protected in the Grande Chaloupe Littoral Conservation Area. Birds The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Réunion
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species and they are split into 44 orders. More than half are passerine or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have furth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pied Harrier
The pied harrier (''Circus melanoleucos)'' is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, named for the male’s distinctive white and black colouration. It is a migratory bird endemic to Asia, ranging roughly from southern Siberia to the Philippines. They are primarily solitary although will sometimes form loose groups. They mostly live in open country and eat small mammals. Description The pied harrier is a medium sized raptor. They measure 41-49cm (16 – 19 in) from the end of the tail to tip of the beak. Adult males weigh 265–325g, while adult females weigh 390–455g. They perch on reeds, posts, or on the ground, rarely on trees. Their wings reach far down their tail but not past the tip. The male is black on the head, neck, back, breast, and primary flight feathers, and white on the forewing, rump, and the rest of its underparts. It has striking yellow eyes. The female is similar looking to that of Montagu’s harrier. It is generally dark brown above and pale brow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Greenway
James Cowan Greenway (April 7, 1903 – June 10, 1989) was an American ornithologist. An eccentric, shy, and often reclusive man, his survey of extinct and vanishing birds provided the base for much subsequent work on bird conservation. Early years Greenway was born in New York City, though grew up on the Lauder Greenway Estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his brothers G. Lauder Greenway and Gilbert Greenway, as the son of James Greenway Sr., founder of the Yale School of Public Health. He is also a grandson of George Lauder and a great-grandson of George Lauder, Sr. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1922, and graduated from Yale University in 1926 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then worked for a few years as a reporter for the ''Brooklyn Eagle'' newspaper. Expeditions and research Expeditions with Delacour In 1929 Greenway became a partner in the Franco-Anglo-American Zoological Expedition to Madagascar. The expedition was sponsored by the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metacarpals
In human anatomy, the metacarpal bones or metacarpus, also known as the "palm bones", are the appendicular skeleton, appendicular bones that form the intermediate part of the hand between the phalanges (fingers) and the carpal bones (wrist, wrist bones), which joint, articulate with the forearm. The metacarpal bones are homologous to the metatarsal bones in the foot. Structure The metacarpals form a transverse arch to which the rigid row of distal carpal bones are fixed. The peripheral metacarpals (those of the thumb and little finger) form the sides of the cup of the palmar gutter and as they are brought together they deepen this concavity. The index metacarpal is the most firmly fixed, while the thumb metacarpal articulates with the trapezium and acts independently from the others. The middle metacarpals are tightly united to the carpus by intrinsic interlocking bone elements at their bases. The ring metacarpal is somewhat more mobile while the fifth metacarpal is semi-indepen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibia
The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects the knee with the ankle bones, ankle. The tibia is found on the anatomical terms of location#Medial, medial side of the leg next to the fibula and closer to the median plane. The tibia is connected to the fibula by the interosseous membrane of leg, forming a type of fibrous joint called a syndesmosis with very little movement. The tibia is named for the flute ''aulos, tibia''. It is the second largest bone in the human body, after the femur. The leg bones are the strongest long bones as they support the rest of the body. Structure In human anatomy, the tibia is the second largest bone next to the femur. As in other vertebrates the tibia is one of two bones in the lower leg, the other being the fibula, and is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarsometatarsus
The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bird bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and metatarsal bones (foot). Despite this, the tarsometatarsus of flying types is often referred to as just the shank, tarsus or metatarsus. Tarsometatarsal fusion occurred in several ways and extents throughout bird evolution. Paticularly, in Neornithes (modern birds), although the bones are joined along their entire length, the fusion is most thorough at the distal (metatarsal) end. In the Enantiornithes, a group of Mesozoic avialans, the fusion was complete at the proximal (tarsal) end, but the distal metatarsi were still partially distinct. While these fused bones are best known from birds and their relatives, avians are neither the only group nor the first to possess tarsometatarsi. In a remarkable case of parallel evolution, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Gadow
Hans Friedrich Gadow (8 March 1855 – 16 May 1928) was a German-born ornithologist who worked in Britain. His work on the classification of birds based on anatomical and morphological characters was influential and made use of by Alexander Wetmore in his classification of North American birds. Gadow was born in Stary Kraków (Pomerania), the son of an inspector of the Prussian royal forests. He studied at the universities of Berlin, Jena and Heidelberg. At Jena he studied under Ernst Haeckel and at Heidelberg University under the anatomist Carl Gegenbaur. After graduation he travelled to the Natural History Museum in London in 1880 at the request of Albert Günther, to work on the museum's ''Catalogue of Birds''. Gadow also established the first new sequence of bird orders and families that departed from earlier works in being based on phylogenetic principles based on a comparison of anatomical and morphological features and made use of the studies made by Max Fürbringer. Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume ''Dictionary of Birds'' (1893–6), entries on ornithology in the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition) while also an editor of the journal ''Ibis (journal), Ibis'' from 1865 to 1870. In 1900 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Linnean Medal, Gold Medal of the Linnaean Society. He founded the British Ornithologists Union. Life Alfred Newton was born near Geneva in Switzerland, the fifth son of William Newton (MP for Ipswich), William Newton of Elveden Hall in Suffolk, Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich (UK Parliament constituency), Ipswich; his mother Elizabeth (1789–1843) was the daughter of Richard Slater Milnes, MP for York (UK Parliament c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
