This painting is entitled “Quaille, an English Water Spaniel.” I include it because this English water spaniel because, except for color and the docked tail, this animal reminds me of a heavily-built golden retriever. It doesn’t remind me of a more-lightly built golden, but something about Quaille that says he could make it as a show [...]
Archive for January, 2010
An English water spaniel
Posted in dog breeds, golden retriever history, Retriever history, tagged English water spaniel, spaniels on January 31, 2010 | 4 Comments »
What the heck was the Norfolk retriever?
Posted in dog breeds, Retriever history, tagged English water spaniel, Norfolk retriever, water dog on January 31, 2010 | 9 Comments »
A fellow named “Saxon ”describes this breed in Hugh Dalziel’s British Dogs: The colour is more often brown than black, and the shade of brown rather light than dark – a sort of sandy brown, in fact. Coat curly, of course, and the curls hardly so close and crisp as in the show retriever of the [...]
How I write
Posted in Absolute Piffle on January 31, 2010 | 8 Comments »
If you were to ask most people who have some expertise in writing style what they prefer to read, you would most likely hear that they want “tight” writing. I’ve never been able to write tightly. I can’t do it. I’ve given up on that endeavor long ago. I’ve decided to work harder on clarity [...]
Marine Iguanas
Posted in wildlife, tagged iguana, marine iguana on January 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
An iguana that goes into very cold ocean water to eat seaweed. That’s got to be one of the strangest things to have ever evolved. Source.
So you want a golden retriever…
Posted in dog breeds, golden retriever, working dogs, tagged golden retriever, working-strain golden retrievers on January 31, 2010 | 8 Comments »
If you’ve decided that you would like to have a golden retriever, you owe it to yourself to consider if your lifestyle, personality, and aesethic sense really match the main characteristics of this breed. Too many dogs are purchased without considering their innate drives and inherited tendencies toward behavior, and as as result, too many [...]
The Unusual Python
Posted in wildlife, tagged African rock python, Asian rock python, Borneo bateater, burmese python, Indian python, python on January 30, 2010 | 3 Comments »
This python is a Borneo bateater. What? You made that up! No. That’s the trade name for a hybrid between the very common Burmese python and the reticulated python. It is a pretty good trade name. The discovery of a feral population of African rock pythons in South Florida has caused some concerns among the [...]
Typical Incendiary Blog Post
Posted in Absolute Piffle on January 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Does this sound familiar?
How long do bowhead whales live?
Posted in wildlife, tagged bowhead whales, Greenland right whale on January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Source. Click here for the full documentary.
Bald Eagle attacks Trumpeter Swan
Posted in wildlife, tagged Bald eagle, eagle, swan, trumpeter swan on January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
From Tetrapod Zoology. That should tell you how big a trumpeter swan is. Here’s a photo that can give you a better look at the size differences: Trumpeter swans are giants. They can weigh nearly 40 pounds. It can have a wingspan of nearly ten feet. That makes it the largest species of waterfowl in [...]
Crested Tit
Posted in wildlife, tagged crested tit, titmice, tits, tufted titmouse on January 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
It’s a European bird. Please keep your mind out of the gutter. Source. A similar bird (and distant relative) lives in North America– the tufted titmouse : Source.





