Posts tagged 1834

The Sand Piper, The Ruff, The European Curlew (Numenius arquata) The Eurasian [European] Curlew is currently not an uncommon bird in Europe, and is known as simply “the curlew”, or, in Scots, the whaup. The breeding population has decreased by almost 80% in recent years, and though the population is still large, it’s considered to be Near Threatened. The rate of decline has slowed notably in recent years, but hunting of the bird in its southern range of African and Asian coastal areas is still prevalent.  This is now considered a protected bird in one of its year-round homes, Ireland. Unlike the other curlews, Eurasian curlews are willing to settle in climates that are relatively temperate year-round, and have a permanent population throughout the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization, Vol I: Mammalia-Birds. Baron George Cuvier, 1834.

The Sand Piper, The Ruff, The European Curlew (Numenius arquata)

The Eurasian [European] Curlew is currently not an uncommon bird in Europe, and is known as simply “the curlew”, or, in Scots, the whaup.

The breeding population has decreased by almost 80% in recent years, and though the population is still large, it’s considered to be Near Threatened. The rate of decline has slowed notably in recent years, but hunting of the bird in its southern range of African and Asian coastal areas is still prevalent. 

This is now considered a protected bird in one of its year-round homes, Ireland. Unlike the other curlews, Eurasian curlews are willing to settle in climates that are relatively temperate year-round, and have a permanent population throughout the United Kingdom and the British Isles.

The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization, Vol I: Mammalia-Birds. Baron George Cuvier, 1834.

“The Black-Collared Ai”: Three toed sloth “The Unau”: Two-toed Sloth The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

“The Black-Collared Ai”: Three toed sloth

“The Unau”: Two-toed Sloth

The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Ammonite Fossils The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Ammonite Fossils

The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

King Vulture Facts I’m not making up: King vultures mate for life, both raise the chicks, and…both contribute to making the nest smell so bad that it deters predators. Their nests give off chemicals that have literally made researchers lose consciousness whilst attempting to do a routine banding of the fledglings. Now THAT’S some stank. The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization: Vol 1, Mammalia and Birds. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

King Vulture

Facts I’m not making up: King vultures mate for life, both raise the chicks, and…both contribute to making the nest smell so bad that it deters predators. Their nests give off chemicals that have literally made researchers lose consciousness whilst attempting to do a routine banding of the fledglings.

Now THAT’S some stank.

The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization: Vol 1, Mammalia and Birds. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

The horse, and how to tell its age by tooth wear. The Animal Kingdom. Georges Cuvier, 1834.

The horse, and how to tell its age by tooth wear.

The Animal Kingdom. Georges Cuvier, 1834.

White-lipped Peccary also pigs  wild pigs!

White-lipped Peccary

also pigs 

wild pigs!

Giant Woodcock, Brazilian Snipe, Sacred Ibis At the Serapeum in Saqqara (the necropolis at the Ancient Egyptian city of Memphis), there were half a million mummified sacrificed ibises (the symbols of Thoth), and hundreds of thousands of mummified falcons (the symbols of Ra).  The Animal Kingdom. Georges Cuvier, 1834.

Giant Woodcock, Brazilian Snipe, Sacred Ibis

At the Serapeum in Saqqara (the necropolis at the Ancient Egyptian city of Memphis), there were half a million mummified sacrificed ibises (the symbols of Thoth), and hundreds of thousands of mummified falcons (the symbols of Ra). 

The Animal Kingdom. Georges Cuvier, 1834.

Ibises from Egypt

The ibis was a sacred bird in ancient Egypt for its association with the god Thoth. Usually depicted with the head of a Sacred Ibis, Thoth was the god that maintained the universe, and was considered to be the heart and tongue of the god Ra. Since the heart was considered to be the center of intelligence and thought (though interestingly, not the center of reflexes or movement - that was the brain), Thoth was considered to be both the “will of god” and the one who allowed the expression of the will, through speech. However, he was still subordinate to Ra.

Later in Egyptian mythology, Thoth became heavily associated with the recording of medicine, science, and judgement of the dead.

Ibises from The Animal Kingdom: Vol 1. Georges Cuvier, 1834

Gastropods! Slug slug slug slug slug. The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Gastropods!

Slug slug slug slug slug.

The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Exhumed cadaver. Buried 13 months. Wet, temperate climate. Very cool and rainy summer. Trait des Exhumations Juridiques. M. Orfila and M. O. Lesueur, 1834.

Exhumed cadaver. Buried 13 months. Wet, temperate climate. Very cool and rainy summer.

Trait des Exhumations Juridiques. M. Orfila and M. O. Lesueur, 1834.

Exhumed cadaver. Buried 10 months. 150 years before the start of the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, medical anthropologists in France were (legally) exhuming cadavers of vagrants and unidentified persons. They were examining the postmortem changes in the body when the circumstances of death were known, and the body was buried or stored in various conditions. By studying known cases, they were more able to examine and identify cadavers of unknown origin, and re-examine exhumed cadavers when a death is deemed suspicious after burial. The science of forensic anthropology languished and was largely ignored during most of the Victorian era, at least in the “Western” world. Even so, the work done by French physicians at the end of the 18th and into the 19th century provided a solid scientific foundation for when the field found much renewed interest, around the turn of the 20th century. Trait des Exhumations Juridiques. M. Orfila and M. O. Lesueur, 1834.

Exhumed cadaver. Buried 10 months.

150 years before the start of the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, medical anthropologists in France were (legally) exhuming cadavers of vagrants and unidentified persons. They were examining the postmortem changes in the body when the circumstances of death were known, and the body was buried or stored in various conditions. By studying known cases, they were more able to examine and identify cadavers of unknown origin, and re-examine exhumed cadavers when a death is deemed suspicious after burial.

The science of forensic anthropology languished and was largely ignored during most of the Victorian era, at least in the “Western” world. Even so, the work done by French physicians at the end of the 18th and into the 19th century provided a solid scientific foundation for when the field found much renewed interest, around the turn of the 20th century.

Trait des Exhumations Juridiques. M. Orfila and M. O. Lesueur, 1834.

Mollusca. Octopus, squid, nautilus, and cuttlefish. The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization, Serving as a Foundation for the Natural History of Animals, and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Mollusca.

Octopus, squid, nautilus, and cuttlefish.

The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization, Serving as a Foundation for the Natural History of Animals, and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy. Baron Cuvier, 1834.

Erpétologie générale, ou, Histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. A. Duméril, 1834.

Erpétologie générale, ou, Histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. A. Duméril, 1834.

Tragopan satyra, the Satyr or Crimson Tragopan. Also known as Crimson-Horned Pheasant. A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. John Gould, 1832.

Tragopan satyra, the Satyr or Crimson Tragopan. Also known as Crimson-Horned Pheasant.

A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. John Gould, 1832.

Gecko feet are incredible. They can hang onto anything, thanks to little rubbery hairs that will suction their bodies to almost every surface. Erpétologie générale, ou, Histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. A. Duméril, 1834.

Gecko feet are incredible. They can hang onto anything, thanks to little rubbery hairs that will suction their bodies to almost every surface.

Erpétologie générale, ou, Histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. A. Duméril, 1834.