Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Roman satirist Juvenal wrote in AD 82 of rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno ("a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan"). [6] He meant something whose rarity would compare with that of a black swan, or in other words, as a black swan was not thought to exist, neither did the supposed characteristics of the "rare bird" with which it was being compared.
The swan was "cemented in the imagination as a creature of romance for a whole generation of impressionable working class suburban kids". The anthropomorphic projection may not have been entirely random; [2] swans are believed to take a mate for life, and the graceful white birds might symbolize monogamous felicity. [2]
The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white plumage, but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian black swan ( Cygnus atratus ) is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings; the chicks of black swans are light grey.
Depictions of swans (genus Cygnus) in art. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks . Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini .
The clip shows the two engaging in what Susan Best, president of Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario, calls their "victory dance." Something that two swans would only do with their forever mate.
The black swan was a literary or artistic image among Europeans even before their arrival in Australia. Cultural reference has been based on symbolic contrast and as a distinctive motif. The black swan's role in Australian heraldry and culture extends to the first founding of the colonies in the eighteenth century.
Papilio aegeus, the orchard swallowtail butterfly or large citrus butterfly is a species of butterfly from the family Papilionidae, that is found in eastern Australia and Papua New Guinea. The larvae of this species are sometimes considered a pest, due to their feeding on citrus leaves in suburban gardens.
Like other members of the genus, the butterfly is named "sister" for its black and white markings on the forewing that resemble a nun's habit. [7] A. californica closely resembles A. bredowii and A. eulalia. However it generally does not share the same distribution range as the other two. A. bredowii is only found in southern and western Mexico.