28 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Turkey as a Better Symbol for America
Others object to the Bald Eagle, as looking too much like a Dindon, or Turkey. For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk [Osprey]; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Supp...Benjamin Franklin argues that the turkey is a better mascot than the bald eagle, for it is a more noble bird. The behavior he describes in the eagle, which steals fish from osprey, has been confirmed independently from naturalists we have spoken to.
19 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Taung Child's Horrible Demise
The
first Australopithecine to be discovered, and the type specimen of the genus, was the so-called
Taung Child. At the age of three and a half the Taung Child was eaten by an eagle. The evidence is
that damage marks to the eye sockets of the fossil are identical to marks made by modern eagles on
modern monkeys as they rip out their eyes. Poor little Taung Child, shrieking on the wind as you
were borne aloft by the aquiline fury, you would have found no comfort in your destined fame, two
and ...Killed by a bird of prey.