When did the Latin name for the Northen Gannet change from Sula bassana to Morus bassanus and why?
918505
Heh.  Depending on who you ask, it HASN'T changed.  Let's break it down:\n\nThe names given in Latin for animals are usually just the most specific part of their scientific classification.  Now originally the whole classification system was just set up so you could tell animal A from animal B, so it involved a bunch of branching questions you might ask and then refer to the animal to see in which classification it belonged.  This was a pretty good idea at the time, because with only one name for each type of animal and a systematic way of determining such things, everyone could talk about the same things.\n\nA wrinkle was introduced as biology developed as a science.  With the advent of evolution, and confirmed with DNA sequencing and the like, it was discovered that the classification system that was (almost) haphazardly put together just to sort animals was actually pretty descriptive of common ancestry.  Animals that had a lot in common probably shared recent common ancestors, and animals with less in common were more distantly related.  This eureka of how an accidental classification system could correspond so closely to molecular evidence is still one of the most compelling justifications for the evolutionary theory today.\n\nThe problem is that the correspondance wasn't perfect, and that even now new connections are be found and old ones are being discredited.  So while the old chart was (more or less) static, scientific classifications these days not only change, but are argued about, changed back, and sometimes just not accepted by some experts.\n\nThis is the case we have with the family 'Sulidae'.  This family includes all the birds that are generally referred to as gannets and boobies.  About this, at least, there is no argument.\n\nNow, it used to be thought that pretty much all existing species of Sulidae came from just one group of ancestors.  The Sula.  You see this kind of similar naming crop up a lot in taxonomy, especially when the groups are small but distinct.  In addition to the still-living Sula, there were also any number of extinct fossil groupings which did not survive.  All these groups which made up the family of Sulidae are each called a 'genus', and their names are the first part of the Latin name that animals are commonly referred to.\n\nThis old model of how things happened is now (largely) superceded by a new one.  There are now thought to be THREE living genuses:  Morus (all the gannets), Sula (almost all the boobies), and Papasula (which has just one species - Abbot's Booby).  So basically most biologists have decided from the evidence that three of the ancient groups survived instead of just one, and they did so probably on the basis of fossils that have been found, DNA evidence, and the like.\n\nBut some do not agree with this decision, so you'll actually still see references to both 'Sula bassana' and 'Morus bassanus'.  The second name, that of the species, is really the same name... it's only different between the two because of the rules of Latin grammar.\n\nHope that helps!
442727
I think Beltane or May Day is the Pagan New Year or Halloween.\n Per All Knowing Wikipedia.org:\n"The origin of this custom has been much disputed, and many theories have been suggested, e.g. that it is a farcical commemoration of Christ being sent from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate, the crucifixion having taken place about the 1st of April.\n\nWhat seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year's day, the 25th of March, ended on the 1st of April.\n\nIt has been suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French [1]. They were the first nation to adopt the reformed Gregorian calendar, Charles IX in 1564 decreeing that the year should begin with the 1st of January. Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. However, it is unlikely that this explanation of April Fool's Day’s origin is correct. Well before 1582, when King Charles IX of France brought in the new Gregorian calendar, French and Dutch references from respectively 1508 and 1539 describe April Fool's Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April.\n\nThough the 1st of April appears to have been anciently observed in Great Britain as a general festival, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being there, as it is in most lands, a term of contempt. In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril. This has been explained from the association of ideas arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. A far more natural explanation would seem to be that the April fish would be a young fish and therefore easily caught.\n\nThe Dutch have their own reason. Back in 1572, the Netherlands were still ruled by Spain's King Phillip II. There were roaming Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux", meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, they took a small coastal town called Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. General Alva of the Spanish army could not do much. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alva lost his glasses". Dutch people find this joke so hilarious they still commemorate the first of April."
748862
The Ring-Billed Gull is a medium-sized gull that is often called the "sea gull." This bird used to be quite abundant, and was called the Common American Gull. It was killed for its feathers (mostly used in hats), but has now recovered from a drastic decline in population numbers; it may be the most abundant gull in North America. This sea bird is found along ocean and lake coasts of North America. The life span is about 10 to 15 years. These water birds make a high-pitched squawking sound and a ky-eow sound.
117976
In Middle English it was farten, while in Old English it was thought to be *feorten (that is a reconstruction as the Old English form has not survived in writing).  The Indo-European root is *perd- "to fart, to break wind".  That root gave Greek perdon "fart", which turns up in the genus name of a type of mushroom, the puffball, also know as the "wolf's fart" (from the literal translation of its Greek name: lycoperdon).  Puffballs shoot their spores out in what resembles a puff of smoke, hence this name and the English dialect name puck-fist ("Puck's fart"). \n\nThe Indo-European root *perd- is thought by some to have been imitative of the sound of farting.  Other languages with similarly-derived words are German (farzen), Swedish (fjarta), Danish (fjerte), Russian (perdet), Polish (pierdziec), and Greek (pordizo).  Oh, and let's not forget English partridge!  Etymologically it is the "farting bird" because the name derives from Greek perdix, which refers to the whirring sound the bird makes when suddenly flushed out of hiding.  The Greeks thought it sounded like farting!\n\nWe can't move on before telling you that the earliest occurrence of a form of fart in the English written record comes from a song called The Cuckoo Song, or Sumer is icumen in, from about 1250:
850412
The common name for this species is Gray Myotis or Howell's Bat .\n\nHowever, the translation of its Latin name would be "gray mouse-eared" , from a combination of Greek and Latin roots: "mys" = mouse + "otis" =ear/eared + "grisescens", from "griseus" = gray.
803805
I actually have no idea! And I'm French. So I've checked in an encyclopedia, and it says that it's still open to debate.\n\nOne of the possible origins of the word would be "serpe volante", which in Latin means "serpent volant" (flying snake), or "sèrp-volante", which means the same in Occitan. It makes sense because the first kites represented snakes or dragons.\n\nIt could also come from "Ercum volanti", "Arcum valante" or "Cercum volante", which in Latin mean "Arc volant" (flying arch). So, what's the link with the deer? Well, the deer was (still is?) wearing a crown (not sure where they saw that)... I'm not sure I really understood what they meant. There was no pictures.
308973
The team began as the Kansas City Blues in 1894 and moved to Washington in 1900.  There they were known as the Senators from 1901 until 1904.  In 1905 they changed their name to the Washington Nationals for one season.  They then remained the Senators until 1960 when they moved to Minnesota and became known as the Twins.  The "Minnesota" designation, instead of "Minneapolis", comes from the fact that the team is intended to represent the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul (and, presumably, the entire state).
384754
The Birth of the Bird? -\nBefore the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and they would therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won the major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!\nPLUCK YEW!" Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.\nIt is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".
974791
Probably the same name as Bronwyn, which means "White Breast." From Welsh BRON and GWEN.
740056
Language: Old English\nOrigin: belg 'bag, skin'
652723
It is Gaelic for "young creature."
34326
"We do not know exactly when droving began," says Bonser, but with this info east Europe is the best guess.\nDROVING IN BRITAIN\n\n    "Wild cattle (aurochs) were a part of the native fauna of the forests, grasslands and marshes of post-glacial Scotland...and, when the ice retreated, it became a resident species; its remains have been found northwards to Caithness...When Neolithic and Bronze Age people colonised Scotland, domestic (Celtic shorthorn) cattle arrived with the[m]...about 5000 years ago...The wild and domesticated cattle may have existed together in places until the ninth or tenth century when the aurochs became extinct in Scotland...The original domesticated Celtic shorthorn became the Kyloe, the cow of the Highlands and Western Isles--the breed stock of Highland cattle [today],...Small, hardy black cattle, they were described by Bishop Leslie in 1578 as 'not tame...like wild harts (deer)...which through certain wildness of nature, flee the company or sight of men.'" (From "The Economics and Ecology of Extensively Reared Highland Cattle in the Scottish LFAs: an example of a self-sustaining livestock system", Davy McCracken, et al, Scottish Agricultural College, Ayr.) \n\nWhen the population of an area was small and isolated, most of the land could be used for grazing, and some for the growing of crops. But as populations increased, pressure on the land increased as well, and use had to be made of the poorer, higher land for grazing. This often entailed the seasonal relocation of whole or partial communities along with their livestock--transhumance. During late autumn and winter the pastoral community occupied homesteads on the edge of the valleys or on the coastal lowlands. During late spring and summer they would remove their stock to the higher mountain pastures, thus allowing the better land to be used for hay and other crops. In the high pastures part of the community would live in temporary dwellings while the rest would tend the fields below. "Transhumance," McCracken et al say, "still prevailed on low-lying land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and probably continued to operate on moors, marshes and seasonally flooded land until late medieval times; in the Hebrides, low-lying shielings existed until recent times, but generally by the seventeenth century the substantial areas of grazing [used] for [local] transhumance were on the hills and mountains...The earliest surviving written documents referring to transhumance date from the twelfth century..."\n\n"We do not know exactly when droving began," says Bonser, "but we do know that the early inhabitants of Britain moved large herds of cattle and sheep, raiding, or in search of fresh pasture." Transhumance means "the transfer of livestock from one grazing ground to another, as from lowlands to highlands, with the changing of seasons (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000). "Droving, on the other hand, means "To drive, as cattle or sheep, especially on long journeys; to follow the occupation of a drover" (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996). The difference might seem subtle, but as soon as people began moving livestock for the purpose of trade or business, droving as a profession was born.
400616
(m)\n\ncheck the following website\n\n\nhttp://www.nature.com/nature/focus/avianflu/timeline.html#top
286134
We got a Maine Coon cat who we named Harryhausen. His father's name was Hal Bop, which I thought was a cool name for a cat. Harryhausen is the greatest - provokes astonishment from guests, is gigantic, peaceable, with a quiet meow. I had an Angora once and he was the most obnoxious bloody cat on the planet with a very irritating meow. Manx cats look kinda cool, but I don't know much about them. Ditto, Persian.
195646
Vermont State Bird\nHermit Thrush Catharus guttatus Adopted:1941 \n \nVermont State Bird: Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) \nAdoption of the Vermont State Bird\nAs in so many states, the Vermont Federated Women's Clubs played a part in the adoption of the Vermont state bird. They adopted, in 1927, the hermit thrush (Hylocichla gutta pallasi) as their state bird.\n\nIt was not so easy for the hermit thrush to gain status as the official state bird of Vermont. According to the Vermont Legislative Directory and State Manual, Biennial Session, 1993-1994:\n\n"Among other things, it was not considered a true Vermonter because, unlike the blue jay or crow (which were favored by some legislators), the Hermit Thrush leaves Vermont during the winter in its southward migration. The record is not clear, but this bird was selected to represent Vermont, among other things, because it has a distinctive sweet call, and because it is found in all of Vermont's 14 counties."\n\nThe hermit thrush was adopted as the official state bird of Vermont by an act of the Legislature in 1941, effective June 1, 1941.
116120
In most places, until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, 25 March (the date known as the Annunciation of Mary) was the first day of the new year. Eventually this was changed to 1 January (a date associated with the Circumcision of Christ). Some of the month names indicate their position relative to the March year beginning - September, October, November, and December are formed from root words meaning "seven", "eight", "nine", and "ten", respectively. When the first of the year was changed to January, they became the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th months, but kept their original names.
310384
Glind is when a birds gliding but accidentaly lands. Instead of a gland they call it a glind.