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Grey-crowned Rosy Finch
The gray-crowned rosy finch or gray-crowned rosy-finch (''Leucosticte tephrocotis'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Fringillidae native to Alaska, western Canada, and the north-western United States. Due to its remote and rocky alpine habitat it is rarely seen. There are currently six recognized subspecies. It is one of four species of rosy finches. Taxonomy The gray-crowned rosy finch was first classified by English ornithologist William Swainson in 1832. This bird has been thought to form a superspecies with three other rosy finches (also known as mountain finch): black rosy finch ''(L. atrata)'' and the brown-capped rosy finch ''(L. australis)'', all of which were classified as the same species as the Asian rosy finch ''(L. arctoa)'' from 1983 to 1993. Recent mitochondrial DNA evidence shows the rosy finches are all indeed very closely related and can be easily confused with one another. Along with one Asian rosy finch and two Asian mountain finches, the th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Swainson
William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of John Timothy Swainson, an original fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Linnean Society. He was a cousin of the amateur botanist Isaac Swainson.Etymologisches Worterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen by H. Genaust. Review by Paul A. Fryxell ''Taxon'', Vol. 38(2), 245–246 (1989). His father's family originated in Lancashire, and both his grandfather and father held high posts in Her Majesty's Customs, his father becoming Collector at Liverpool. William, whose formal education was curtailed because of an speech impediment, impediment in his speech, joined the Liverpool Customs as a junior clerk at the age of 14."William Swainson F.R.S, F.L.S., Naturalist and Arti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pribilof Islands
The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands; , ) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about north of Unalaska and 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Cape Newenham. The islands are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The Siberian coast is roughly northwest. About in total area, they are mostly rocky and are covered with tundra, with a population of 572 as of the 2010 census. Principal islands The principal islands are Saint Paul and Saint George. The former was named for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, on the day of which the island was first encountered by the Russian explorer Gavriil Pribylov; the latter was probably named for the ship sailed by Pribylov. The Otter and Walrus islets are near St. Paul. The total land area of all the islands is . The islands are part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Fur trade While oral traditions of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mustard Plant
The mustard plant is any one of several plant species in the genera ''Brassica'', ''Rhamphospermum'' and ''Sinapis'' in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family). Mustard seed is used as a spice. Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vinegar, or other liquids creates the yellow condiment known as Mustard (condiment), prepared mustard. The seeds can also be pressed to make mustard oil, and the edible leaves can be eaten as Brassica juncea, mustard greens. Many vegetables are cultivated varieties of mustard plants; domestication may have begun 6,000 years ago. History Although some varieties of mustard plants were well-established crops in Hellenistic and Roman Empire, Roman times, Daniel Zohary, Zohary and Hopf note, "There are almost no Archaeology, archeological records available for any of these crops." Wild forms of mustard and its relatives, the radish and turnip, can be found over West Asia and Europe, suggesting their domestication took place somewhere in that ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Echinops Exaltatus
''Echinops exaltatus'', the Russian globe thistle or tall globethistle, is European species of globe thistle in the family Asteraceae. It is native to central and eastern Europe from Germany and Italy east into Russia. The species has escaped cultivation and become established in the wild in scattered locations in eastern Canada and the northern United States. Description ''Echinops exaltatus'' is the largest of all globe thistles, a branching perennial herb up to 150 cm (60 inches or 5 feet) tall. One plant can produces several flower heads, each with a very nearly spherical array of white or pale blue disc florets but no ray florets Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fa .... References exaltatus Flora of Europe Plants described in 1811 {{Cynareae-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cutworm
Cutworms are moth larvae that hide under litter or soil during the day, coming out in the dark to feed on plants. A larva typically attacks the first part of the plant it encounters, namely the stem, often of a seedling, and consequently cuts it down; hence the name ''cutworm''. Cutworms are not worms, biologically speaking, but caterpillars. Feeding and hiding Cutworm larvae vary in their feeding behaviour; some remain with the plant they cut down and feed on it, while others often move on after eating a small amount from a felled seedling; such a wasteful mode of feeding results in disproportionate damage to crops. Cutworms accordingly are serious pests to gardeners in general, but to vegetable and grain farmers in particular. For example, it has been suggested that in South Africa, ''turnip moth, Agrotis segetum'' is the second worst pest of maize.Smit, Bernard, "Insects in South Africa: How to Control them", Pub: Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1964. Note that the cutwor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horned Lark
The horned lark or shore lark (''Eremophila alpestris'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found across the northern hemisphere. It is known as "horned lark" in North America and "shore lark" in Europe. Taxonomy The horned lark was Species description, formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Alauda alpestris''. Linnaeus based his account on the description and illustration by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book ''The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'' that was published between 1729 and 1732. Linnaeus specified the type locality (biology), type locality as North America but this has been restricted to the coastal areas of South Carolina. The horned lark is now placed together with Temminck's lark in the genus ''Eremophila (bird), Eremophila'' that was introduced in 1828 by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lapland Longspur
The Lapland longspur (''Calcarius lapponicus''), also known as the Lapland bunting, is a passerine bird in the longspur family (biology), family Calcariidae, a group separated by most modern authors from the Fringillidae (Old World finches). Taxonomy The Lapland longspur was Species description, formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the finches in the genus ''Fringilla'' and coined the binomial name ''Fringilla lapponica''. The Lapland longspur is now one of three longspurs placed in the genus ''Calcarius'' that was introduced in 1802 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The English name refers to the long hind claws. The genus name ''Calcarius'' is from Latin ''calcaria'', "spurs", and the specific ''lapponicus'' refers to Sápmi, Lapland. Five subspecies are recognised: * ''C. l. subcalcaratus'' (Christian Ludwig Brehm, Brehm, CL, 1826 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Bunting
The snow bunting (''Plectrophenax nivalis'') is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska- Yukon border, as well as the Cape Breton Highlands. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world. Taxonomy The snow bunting was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the buntings in the genus '' Emberiza'' and coined the binomial name ''Emberiza nivalis''. He specified the locality as Lapland. It is now placed in the genus '' Plectrophenax'', described in 1882 by the Norwegian born zoologist Leonhard Stejneger with the snow bunting as the type species. The genus na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is applied both to an unstable steep mountain slope composed of rock fragments and other debris, and to the mixture of rock fragments and debris itself. It is loosely synonymous with talus, material that accumulates at the base of a projecting mass of rock, or talus slope, a landform composed of talus. The term ''scree'' is sometimes used more broadly for any sheet of loose rock fragments mantling a slope, while ''talus'' is used more narrowly for material that accumulates at the base of a cliff or other rocky slope from which it has obviously eroded. Scree is formed by rockfall, which distinguishes it from colluvium. Colluvium is rock fragments or soil deposited by rainwash, sheetwash, or slow downhill creep, usually at the base of gentle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Migration
Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Animal migration, Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and mortality. The Arctic tern holds the long-distance migration record for birds, travelling between Arctic breeding grounds and the Antarctic each year. Some species of Procellariiformes, tubenoses, such as albatrosses, circle the Earth, flying over the southern oceans, while others such as Manx shearwaters migrate between their northern breeding grounds and the southern ocean. Shorter migrations are common, while longer ones are not. The shorter migrations include altitudinal migrations on mountains, including the Andes and Himalayas. The timing of migration seems to be controlled primarily by changes in day length. Migrating birds navigate using celestial cues from the Sun and stars, the Earth's magnetic field, and mental maps. Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Depending on differing definitions between Canada and the U.S., its northern terminus is located either in northern British Columbia's Terminal Range south of the Liard River and east of Rocky Mountain Trench, the Trench, or in the northeastern foothills of the Brooks Range/British Mountains that face the Beaufort Sea coasts between the Canning River (Alaska), Canning River and the Firth River across the Alaska-Yukon border. Its southernmost point is near the Albuquerque metropolitan area, Albuquerque area adjacent to the Rio Grande rift and north of the Sandia–Manzano Mountains, Sandia–Manzano Mountain Range. Being the easternmost portion of the North American Cordillera, the Rockie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
