curators

"A maximum of 140 species of birds can be seen more-or-less regularly each year in interior Alaska. Of these species, however, only 28 can be considered regular winter residents, including two hawks, six s, five owls, four s, and eleven s ..."

"Most s leave the during September and October (Hunt et al. 1981b), but stragglers have been recorded as far north as as late as any water exists, even to mid-November ( and 1959)."

"Young s are unable to fly when they leave the nest; they fall and flutter to the water below and swim immediately ..."

"The author takes a ian approach to identifying the major environmental factors that help define the species-specific niches of birds in Alaska. In her study, she censused breeding birds on twelve 10- plots selected to represent fairly homogeneous tracts of each of the major s described for Alaska's taiga."

"I can't emphasize enough how important parent-rearing is, because by hand-rearing we are denying s their birthright unless it is possible to wean them with ... other birds of their own species."

"Parent-rearing keeps the pairs occupied for weeks or months, according to the species. They need the occupation. Rearing reduces the monotony of the days and weeks and years which have little to distinguish them. Boredom and lack of stimulation is a very real problem for the more intelligent species. Many s enjoy family life and most "owners" obtain a lot of enjoyment from seeing family groups in an . (And I do mean an aviary and not a little suspended cage where close confinement can result in aggressive encounters.)"

"Parrots were not designed to live in houses. They are noisy and destructive and suffer probably more than any other animal when kept in an unstimulating environment. They need constant interaction, either with a human or another parrot, to keep them happy and healthy. Keeping a parrot is so much more demanding than keeping a dog or cat. Alas, the fact that many owners have failed, and failed miserably, is evidenced in the growing number of parrot refuges. They are filled with feather-plucked or phobic parrots whose former owners had no idea of their emotional needs."

"... Colombia has one of the highest, if not the highest, number of bird species within its shores of any country worldwide: currently believed to be 1,875 (Compare that with just over 300 species found in the UK!). This high number is attributable to its unique location and to its . It is the only country in that has an Atlantic and a Pacific coast and it is also unique in stretching from to the . Three mountain ranges of the magnificent occupy the western part of the country; in the east the habitats vary from lush and flat s to sandy desert. Given this variety of s, it is not surprising that Colombia has the second or third highest number of parrot species worldwide, a total of 52. This is exceeded by Brazil with about 72 species and possibly by Australia with 52 or 53 species. (These numbers could be revised at any time as DNA research often indicates that a particular species is, in fact, two species.) There is a sad statistic connected with Colombia's 50 plus parrot species: at least 12 are in imminent danger of extinction."

"This is an almost unique case of how a can be endangered by trade without specific demand. It was literally unknown in until only five years ago. There was always a local trade, within the and islands, the only places where it occurs. These islands form a chain from northern to in the Philippines. Then suddenly, hundreds of birds were captured and exported. In 1992 about 1,000 were captured, at least 700 of which were exported. In that year, at least 200 died from disease and neglect at the premises of one dealer in Jakarta. I saw dozens crowded together in the cages of a dealer in Singapore. This would have been appalling whatever the species."

"Horny projections which look more like teeth are found in the beaks of a special group of ducks represented in Britain by and , sometimes known as "sawbills". In these birds the beak is narrow and the "teeth" are used for gripping fish."

"If you are fortunate to have the chance to examine a recently dead bird, even one brought home from the poulterer with intact, spend a little time examining the s carefully and note down various points of interest."

"Macdonald selects twelve aspects of the life and behaviour of birds, illustrating them with Australian examples. Topics covered are Territorial Behaviour, , Population Problems, Post-Breeding Activities, , Distribution, Habitats and Adaptations, , Other Important Features, Various Systems, the Senses, and Variation and . The level of detail on each subject is well suited to the intended audience and avoids both superficiality and excessive detail. Indeed, beginners are far from the only birdwatchers who would profit from reading this book. The list of references, although short, is useful and reasonably comprehensive and would give the interested reader a useful introduction to the literature on a particular topic."

"When appointed to the in 1935 he was placed in the Bird Room, where he started as Assistant Keeper and retired in 1968 as Senior Scientific Officer in charge of the Bird Room and Deputy Keeper of the Zoology Department. Apart from war service with the , his entire career was dedicated to traditional museum ornithology. He ran collecting expeditions to South Sudan in 1938–1939 and South West Africa in 1950–1951, each substantially enhancing African collections in the Museum; that led to publication of a comprehensive report on the birds of the region. ... His professional career culminated in a sponsored mostly by Major Harold Hall, an Australian philanthropist. That was the last systematic collecting of Australian birds by an overseas institute, collecting in all parts of the continent and enriching the British Museum collection of Australian birds by some 6,500 specimens (skins, skeletons, and fluid). The leader of the first expedition in 1962–1963, Jim’s party discovered a new species of bird () in . In that expedition, his wife Betty accompanied him as doctor and caterer for the team."

"The may easily be mistaken for a male in flight. They are identical in size and are similarly barred below. The illusion is often fostered in late summer by young cuckoos being seen in flight with their foster-parents, much smaller birds ..."

"One of the areas whose birds have been given rather less attention than most is the arid western regions of South Africa. For various reasons it has been, and still is, an inhospitable country, in spite of the kindly disposition of its thinly scattered population. Its political history, at times somewhat turbulent; its desolate and fog-bound coastline, now made doubly inapproachable because of protective measures against illicit diamond prospecting; its vast hinterland of and ; and its own arid mountains and plains have discouraged travellers and ornithological pursuits. Although the birds of this region have been studied relatively infrequently most of the species represented have been known for a long time. The first ornithological survey of any importance took place as early as 1783-5 when the French naturalist, , made his second great journey ‘into the interior parts of Africa from the ’."

"The majority of species, , and of s are found in the of the Earth. Therefore it is no surprise that the greatest diversity of flower morphologies and plant-pollinator interactions are also present in the tropics. Endress has amassed a splendid display of examples and illustrations of this tremendous diversity. ... ... There are many references to the classic works of , , and , as well as many lesser known but important European workers of the nineteenth century."

"A major task for any , , , , or applied forensic specialist is to determine the correct identification of a plant sample in a rapid, repeatable, and reliable fashion. “s,” i.e., standardized short sequences of between 400 and 800 s long that in theory can be easily isolated and characterized for all species of plant on the planet, were originally conceived to facilitate this task (Hebert et al., 2003). By combining the strengths of , , and , DNA barcodes offer a quick and accurate means to recognize previously known, described, and named species and to retrieving information about them. This tool also has the potential to speed the discovery of the thousands of plant species yet to be named, especially in s (Cowan et al., 2006)."

"are reported for all but two major divisions of extant s ... No epiphytes have been reported in the or the . Ten percent of all species (23,466 species) are epiphytic. ... The s account for the great majority of epiphytic taxa at all hierarchical levels. ... The s are depauperate in epiphytes: only 0.5% of the species are epiphytes."

"s are native primarily in the American tropics from the in Central Mexico to the in , including the . A curious disjunct group of six species of Heliconia separated by thousands of miles from most other species is found in the Old World tropics (Kress, 1985, 1990a). The center of diversity of the genus is found along the northern Andes (Colombia and Ecuador) extending into southern Central America (Panama and Costa Rica; Andersson, 1989). Most species inhabit moist or wet regions, but some are found in seasonally dry areas. Although heliconias attain their most luxuriant vegetative growth in the humid lowland tropics at elevations below 500 meters, the greatest numbers of species (many locally endemic) are found in middle-elevation (800-1,500 meters) rain and cloud forest habitats. Few species occur above 2000 meters."

"... ' is widely spread over the north temperate and colder regions of the . In Great Britain it is a common plant, being found in the whole of 's 112 counties, ... whilst its altitudinal range is from the coast to some 2,700 above sea-level.... Itself a characteristic plant of the drier parts of marshes and s, ... the habitat of ' is usually where the is considerable rather than excessive. It prefers soils with a high water capacity, such as or . Provided that its needs in respect to soil moisture are satisfied, it will grow almost anywhere: at the edges of marshes and rivers; in the damper parts of meadows; in roadside ditches; on the sea-coast; ... in damp hollows between sand-dunes; ... and even in woods, if the shade is not too dense. ... It readily colonizes moist ground which has been recently disturbed; and hence frequently establishes itself at the foot of railway embankments, &c."

"and factors, though frequently of great importance, are usually indirect in their action, influencing plants by modifying more direct factors. Thus s influence . Local differences of or affect , light, wind and drainage. Associated plants modify light and for each other. , s, etc., exert a far-reaching influence on the chemical and physical characters of the soil, and so on."

"Each has two (sometimes three or more) thin flat ..., at the base of each of which is a swollen part, lined with hairs and containing a single seed. The seed is covered by a thin brown testa. If you scrape away the testa you will find the inside, consisting, as in the , of a , two s, and a very minute plumule. The cotyledons are green and long and narrow, and are coiled into a sort of ball ...; they too contain a store of food."

"It has been said, and with more than element of truth, that the least important part of education is the acquisition of knowledge. The facts of nature, as such, have intense fascination for the nature-lover, yet the value of a mere knowledge of facts may easily be over-estimated. Facts are really s, the value of which lies in the uses to which they may be put. Of far deeper importance, therefore, than the mere committing of facts to memory, is the acquisition of correct habits of study. Habits, that is, of patient and accurate observation, and of clear and logical interpretation and correlation of the facts observed. Facts may be forgotten, but habits remain."

"America the beautiful, Let me sing of thee; Burger King and Dairy Queen From sea to shining sea."

"In 1853 Harvey started on a prolonged tour to the East; his route included Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and sundry of the islands of the Pacific, and he returned ultimately by way of and Panama. The journey was originally undertaken in the interests of the and resulted in a large addition to its treasures. His extensive collections contained a huge mass of material, all of which was practically new. He took all available opportunities of exploring the of the different coasts to which he had access and amassed such a wealth of material that the collection was unequalled by any other of the time. The use he made of it is shown by the great Phycologia Australica which occupied him for five years after his return."

"So long as was encumbered with its pseudo-classical incubus its votaries were few in number. The more it grew into a science founded on observation, the more it attracted popular attention. The writings of , composed in a clear and elegant style, and offering a systematic arrangement such as all could readily understand, contributed more than those of any other naturalist to the spread of a taste for his favourite science. He was eminently a popular writer, and, no matter what criticism may now be passed on his system, it must be admitted that to it is greatly owing the rapidity with which the natural sciences advanced in public favour in the early part of last century."

"The name }} is assigned by botanists to a large group or natural class of ic or flowerless plants, which form the principal and characteristic vegetation of the waters. The sea, in no climate from the s to the , is altogether free from them, though they abound on some shores much more than on others, a subject which will come particularly under notice when we speak of the distribution of their several tribes. Species abound likewise in fresh water, whether running or stagnant, and in mineral springs. The strongly impregnated sulphureous streams of Italy,—the eternal snows of the and regions,—and the of Iceland, have each their peculiar species ; and even chemical solutions, if long kept, produce Algae. Very few, comparatively, inhabit stations which are not submerged or exposed to the constant dripping of water; and, in all situations where they are found, great dampness, at least, is necessary to their production."

"When sat on the throne of the Pharaohs and it became fashionable to inquire into the past history of the extraordinary country which had been brought willy-nilly within the pale of Hellenism, a learned priest named , "The Gift of " (Manethoth), or possibly "The Gift of " (Manutjo), of in the , was commissioned by to collect all that was known of the Egyptian annals and translate them into Greek as Αἰγυπτιαϰὰ. This was done, and until the discoveries of Manetho's work, half destroyed as it now is, imitated and garbled by generations of ignorant copyists, was, with the exception of the sketches by Herodotus and , the sole Egyptian authority on the history of Egypt. A similar rôle with regard to the history of Mesopotamia was played by the work of a Babylonian priest named , who is said to have been a contemporary of (250 B.C.). ... Like that of Manetho, his work is only known to us through the labours of copyists and compilers."

"The new discoveries of the earliest age of Greece are chiefly associated with the name of , and rightly so, as his work first revealed prehistoric Greece to us. But since his time a totally new face has been given to our knowledge by the Cretan discoveries of and , which has rendered out of date all books on the general subject published before 1902. The now prehistooric Greece is very different from the old one of the two decades succeeding Schliemann’s discoveries. He, however, was the pioneer, and his finds explained various ieolaied discoveries made before his time, chiefly of vases, which it had been impossible to bring into any intelligible relation with our knowledge of the relics of classical antiquity. Best known to us of these are perhaps the vases of in , presented to the by in 1870."

"The present energy of the archaeologist in Greece and the modern interest in early Greek archaeology date from and are a consequence of the epoch-making discoveries of the beginning of the XIXth century in the domain of Egyptian and Oriental archaeology. A new world was opened to us by these discoveries; the horizon of our knowledge of the ancient civilizations of the earth was widened indefinitely by them; and it was not long before classical students began, after much doubt and incredulity, to ask themselves how far this new knowledge might bear upon the early . But not all: many classical scholars were utterly unable to conform themselves to the new order of ideas. The keen intellect of , for instance, was unable to grasp the meaning of the new discoveries; he continued to the end of his days refusing to believe that anybody could read a single or interpret a single group of ."

"In spite of the fact that one knew it all beforehand as an Englishman would to whom India in picture and by hearsay was familiar from childhood, who had played with brass s and had broken gilt alabaster s and s and s (with dire corporeal results) before he donned , it was strange to me to realize the fact of the actual worship of Ganesa and Siva and Vishnu in their own land in the temples of their cults at , as strange as if I were to find and still venerated in some Egyptian temple such as or . Egypt and her gods and priests all alive, mixed up with London; with the , , , the , and the : that was the impression I gained of Bombay. There was no doubt of the specifically English (not merely European) impression, and the combination is extraordinary. I felt I loved better Egypt, where the old gods are safely dead and their lore can be studied by such as I without impossible modern contaminations and antinomies, where the ; now calls uncontradicted the simple praises of the One, where the clean desert air breathes health, not septic soddenness, and where one is not likely nowadays to find an - in one’s bed."

"The greater part of our knowledge of early has been derived from the wonderfully successful series of excavations carried out by the late at , ... between 1877 and 1900, and continued for some months in 1903 by Captain (now Commandant) . These mounds mark the site of the city of , and lie a few miles to the north-east of the modern village of , to the east of the , and about an hour’s ride from the present course of the stream. It is evident, however, that the city was built upon the stream, which at this point may originally have formed a branch of the Euphrates, ... for there are traces of a dry channel upon its western side."

"The great religious works of the ns are known to us from documents which do not date from an earlier period than the seventh century In the palaces that were unearthed at , there were found, scattered throusjh the mounds of earth, thousands of s written in the , and in many cases with colophons bearing the name of and the statement that he had caused them to be included in his library. This monarch reigned from 669 to about 625, and, though one of the last kings to occupy the , he made strenuous efforts to preserve the ancient literature of and Assyria. His scribes visited specially the ancient cities and temples in the south, and made copies of literary compositions of all classes which they found there. These they collected and arranged in his palace at Nineveh, and it is from them that the greater part of our knowledge of is derived."

"The great n poem, or series of legends, which narrates the , was termed by the Assyrians and s , “When in the height,” from the two opening words of the text. The poem consisted of some nine hundred and ninety-four lines, and was divided into seven sections, each of which was inscribed upon a separate . ... The poem embodies the beliefs of the Babylonians and Assyrians concerning the origin of the universe; it describes the coming forth of the gods from chaos, and tells the story of how the forces of disorder, represented by the primeval water-gods and , were overthrown by and respectively, and how Marduk, after completing the triumph of the gods over chaos, proceeded to create the world and man. The poem is known to us from portions of several Assyrian and late-Babylonian copies of the work, and from extracts from it written out upon the so-called “practice-tablets,” or students’ exercises, by pupils of the Babylonian scribes. The Assyrian copies of the work are from the great library which was founded at by , king of Assyria from 668 to about 626; the Babylonian copies and extracts were inscribed during the period of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods; and one copy of the Seventh Tablet may probably be assigned to as late a date as the . All the tablets and fragments, which have hitherto been identified as inscribed with portions of the text of the poem, are preserved in the . From the time of the first discovery of fragments considerable attention has been directed towards them, for not only are the legends themselves the principal source of our knowledge of the , but passages in them bear a striking resemblance to the cognate narratives in the Book of Genesis concerning the creation of the world."

"The printmaking process for me is all about seriality - the ability to reproduce, copy, and repeat systematically. I like to think of it as a kind of failed forgery; failed as there really was no 'original' to begin with, just the possibility of many of the same."

"Working with films in this way was very interesting, considering that they were originally shot on film, processed and printed, and now transferred onto VHS or digitized onto DVD for home consumption. This process underwent a curious inversion in this work, as I photographed countless frames off my laptop screen as the DVD played."

"Watching films is no longer an exclusively public experience in cinemas. With the kinds of technologies available today, I am able to indulge my interests in capturing what lies beyond the between frames in films at my leisure, in my private space. These 'autopsied' images seem to give rise to other hidden, secret narratives when characters are caught in freeze-frame, or in the background, apparently unnoticed when not taking centre stage."

"I have been preoccupied with 'forensic' methods of observation and perception for many years. Much of my work requires viewers to take on the persona of a kind of detective, deconstructing and unravelling clues and references that may not announce themselves outright. These clues are invested in the subject matter and iconography I employ but also live firmly in the media in which I choose to work."

"When working through ideas, I don't draw; I make collages. These can be visual, or more often they take the form of bits of conversations, observations and sampled words from pretty much anywhere. For this series, we decided to experiment with exposing photo-based images onto polymer plates, effecting a photogravure process, but combining this with a photolitho process."

"Monroe strikes me as being the quintessential symptom of modern society; displaced, alienated, capable of (and required to) taking on a range of personae without a basis in the understanding of self and agency. On another level, her story is also the iconic intersection of celebrity, causality and death, not to mention conspiracy. For someone whose identity is inextricably tied to her image and nothing more, it seemed right to recast her with a host of screen characters that more accurately reflected on her private experiences rather than her public persona."

"... Through the activities of its various vessels and laboratories the has been able to transfer to the vast accumulations from nearly all the coasts of America. The amount of work accomplished by the steamers ' and ' and the schooner ', as well as by other vessels of the commission in earlier years, is indicated in the detailed lists of specimens. Other Government explorations that have yielded considerable results are those constantly carried on by the of the Department of Agriculture and those occasional expeditions under the auspices of the National Museum itself and the . Of the obtained by the and by the very little remains, owing to the inadequate housing of the former collection before the existence of a National Museum building, and to the destruction of the latter collection in the while it was in the custody of Dr. ."

"The Fish Commission explorations began 1891, in connection with the between California and the , when ten hauls of the trawl and tangles were made, mostly between 300 and 375 s. The results were meager compared with those realized by the three months' systematic exploration by a land party in 1901 under the leadership of Dr. and Dr. and the in 1902. ... This vessel occupied 397 stations in the vicinity of the islands, while field parties, led by Dr. , explored the shores and reefs as well as the fresh-water streams. Mr. , of , has given added value to the specimens by notes on their habits, color, etc. Mr. , for many years a resident of , has from time to time sent to the National Museum, and has added several species to this list. Other contributors are the late , a wealthy planter of the island of who was much interested in natural history, and Mr. R. C. McGregor, of the ."

"Her own special field of interest was the , particularly the s, both recent and fossil. Her bibliography on the animals embraces 158 titles. Perhaps her most important and best-known works are her four large monographs on the , , and of America, published as bulletins of the between 1918 and 1937. In 1917 the conferred upon her the degree of doctor of philosophy in recognition of her work on the grapsoid crabs."

"Practically nothing was known of the s of the North Pacific coast before Johnson's valuable reports of 1897 and 1901 — the first entitled 'A Preliminary Account of the Marine Annelids of the Pacific Coast,' the other 'The Polychæta of the Puget Sound Region.' This is especially true of Alaska, a few species only having been recorded north of , British Columbia; therefore the collections made by , of the , and Dr. Wesley R. Coe, of Yale University, as members of the of 1899, are of great interest."

"On the first trip of the from , which was made July 16 to 19, four successful hauls were made with a large trawl, in 1,346 to 1,735 s, on the 17th and 18th of July, two each day, besides the soundings and temperature determinations, including series of temperatures at various distances from the surface. On this trip about one hundred and five species of s were obtained, not including the and other minute forms. There were among them fourteen species of ; two of s; twenty-two of s; thirty-eight of ; fifteen of ; one of ; ten of ; one of ; two of s."

"P, Bush, 1905. Nine tubes of moderate size were found in 1898 and 1901, dredged in 30-40 feet in and other localities at Bermuda. They were taken usually from dead but occasionally attached to s, forming an irregularly twisted mass. The surface is sometimes ornamented with five conspicuous, longitudinal carinæ, the two outer ones usually the largest."

"... After a brief period spent in other government offices, he transferred in 1910 to the , being appointed assistant in the Department of Zoology, which then included entomology. Under Dr. , Blair was put in charge of a large section of the comprising principally the , which had perforce been largely neglected for many years. His systematic critical revision of genera and species, the description of new ones, the elucidation of the work of the early authors, a catalogue of the and , and so on. Concurrently he published many papers of faunistic interest, based largely on collections made by various expeditions."

"With few exceptions, luminous insects throughout the world belong, broadly speaking, to one family of Beetles, the , or to give them their popular name, the Fireflies and Glow-worms. The most important exception to this statement is afforded by the Fireflies of the West Indies and Central America, locally known as " Cucujos," which, though still Beetles, belong to quite a different family, the or Skipjacks. ... Though usually present to a greater or lesser degree in both sexes, the luminous property is generally developed much more highly in one sex than in the other. When it is the male beetle that possesses it in the greater degree, the light is shown when the insect is on the wing, and is generally of an intermittent or flashing character, and gives to the insects their popular name of Fireflies. On the other hand, when the power of luminosity is the more highly developed in the female beetle, the character is usually associated with a more or less complete absence of wings, and the insect becomes merely a crawling, unpleasant-looking, worm-like creature, generally known in fact as a Glow-worm, which nobody who is not an entomologist would ever dream of calling a Beetle. The males of these insects are winged, in form closely resembling the Fireflies, and are totally unlike their spouses. The consequence of this utter dissimilarity between the two sexes of one species is, that it is not easy to co-relate them properly in our collections."

"The early literature of has, from very remote times, contained allusions to huge species of s, often accompanied by more or less fabulous and usually exaggerated descriptions of the creatures ... In a few instances figures were attempted which were largely indebted to the imagination of their authors for their more striking peculiarities. In recent times, many more accurate observers have confirmed the existence of such monsters, and several fragments have found their way into European museums. To and to , however, belongs the credit of first describing and figuring, in a scientific manner, a number of fragments sufficient to give some idea of the real character and affinities of these colossal species."

"The following catalogue is intended to include all the now known to inhabit the that are not included in 's edition of 's Invertebrata of Massachusetts, published in 1870. In the "New England Region" I include, on the north, the coasts of Nova Scotia and , and their outlying banks; while on the south, I include the entire region, about 100 to 120 miles wide, between the shore and the , off the southern coast of New England, and embracing all depths down to 600 s. ... I have also included the free-swimming and floating forms, ordinarily inhabiting the same region, which may be considered as meeting and including the innermost edge of the Gulf Stream in summer, but most of these surface forms are usually to be found, in summer, far inside the actual limits of the Gulf Stream. The and the northern parts of the I have considered as extra-limital, for my present purposes. Those localities are inhabited by an extremely , including many species of mollusca that have not yet been found farther south. Among these are several species of ' and allied genera."