A journal for random experiments

The Song Bird

Each day as it dawns,Mother, I should walk in your footsteps.Swinging off branches, playing in valleys,I should be coddled in mother’s lap everyday.The nightingale that sings from behind the treeShould be with me as it reciprocates with a “koo” whenever I call her.- Komma Uyala It is remarkable that the birds which sing are rarely…

The Peacock

“The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!” wrote Charles Darwin in 1860.  Darwin, along with other naturalists of his times, had theorized that the broad diversification in bird coloration evolved as a function of sexual selection.  But the peacock took it to such extreme that…

Plumage

Feather grows much like our hair: a meticulously constructed mass of dead protein, called beta-keratin, pushed out from a follicle in the living skin.  An analogy for feather is like a tree – its trunk, a hollow central shaft, is called a rachis, numerous branches stemmed from the rachis are called barbs, and from the…

Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s

Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s is a traditional English nursery rhyme which references the bells of several churches within the vicinity of the City of London.  It is also a children’s singing game, in which two children place their hands together to form an arch to symbolize the arch of sanctuary while the others…

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