The Golden Eagle is probably the best known of all the birds of prey. It is a magnificent bird, up to 3 feet in length and with a wingspan of up to 8 feet. Golden Eagles patrol enormous areas of remote mountainous country throughout the northern hemisphere. They are long-lived birds which pair up for life, usually returning to the …

During winter flies will hibernate, sometimes in large groups, in any available dry and warm space such as an attic. The reason there are so few houseflies in winter is that their eggs will hatch only at temperatures between 24º Centigrade and 35º Centigrade (75º Fahrenheit and 95º Fahrenheit). Meanwhile their numbers steadily diminish owing to insecticides and natural causes. …

When it rains butterflies settle on the stems of flowers or stalks of grass. They hang head downwards with their wings folded together over their backs. Most butterflies are difficult to see when their wings are closed, because the undersides have only pale colors and fain patterns. There are about 10,000 known species of butterfly. They range in size from …

The parakeets are a widespread group of small Old World parrots. Best known is the Grass Parakeet or Budgerigar which is popular as a cage bird in so many homes. Budgerigars come from Australia. Large, chattering flocks feed among the grasses of the wide, inland plains. They eat the seeds of a variety of grasses, the fresh shoots of plants …

Sunbathing has its origins in ancient civilizations. Greeks, Romans, and Sumerians considered Sun as a God, because Sun was the most powerful natural source of heat and light; as a part of Sun worship, they used to expose their bodies to sunlight. Another reason was ancient man’s liking for bronzed skin, which could be easily acquired by sunbathing.

When you throw in the towel, you are giving up. You are admitting surrender or defeat. In its original form, it was called ‘to throw up the sponge’; this appears in The Slang Dictionary (1860). The reference is to sponges used to cleanse combatants faces at prize fights. A contestant’s manager throwing in the sponge would signal that the fighter …

Teddy Bears began with the American President ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, who was fond of hunting. One day he found a bear cub which had lost his mother and his kindness to the cub was noticed by a newspaper cartoonist. Afterwards Teddy Roosevelt went to a wedding and, at the reception, was given some toy bears. He was delighted and someone suggested …

The sport of riding on the crest or along the tunnel of a wave, especially while standing or lying on a surfboard is called surfboarding. Originally developed by Hawaiian islanders before the 15th century, ‘he’e nalu’ spread in the early 20th century to mainland USA and Australia, where heavy timber plank boards were ridden directly towards beaches.

Today we think of origami, the art of folding paper, as a Japanese craft. But the skill originally came from China, where it was the custom to make household items from paper so that they could be burnt at a person’s funeral and that person could have the objects in the after life. The art reached Japan in the seventh …

The dodo was rather a stupid bird. Indeed, it was so stupid that it was named dodo by the Portuguese when they discovered Mauritius-its home-in 1507. The Portuguese word dodo means stupid. Mauritius is an island, 70 square miles in area and lying 500 miles to the east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Until the arrival of man, with …