The tufted jay, also known as the painted jay and Dickey's jay, is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is endemic to a small area of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico. A large jay, it has a prominent dark crest on its head; a purplish-blue back, wings, and face; a white spot above the eye and on the cheek; white undersides; and a partially white tail. Its typical call is a quick, four-note vocalization. The relationship between the tufted jay and other members of the genus Cyanocorax has been a subject of interest since the species was first described in 1935. Because of the visual similarities between the tufted jay and the white-tailed jay, the two were thought by some to be closely related. A 2010 mitochondrial-DNA study has shown that the tufted jay is most closely related to a group of South American jays, despite their ranges being separated by more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi). They are likely descended from an ancestral jay that ranged throughout Latin America. (Full article...).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufted_jay

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1865:

Six Confederate veterans of the American Civil War founded a social club they named the Ku Klux Klan, which later became a white supremacist group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

1918:

Forces united in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes defeated Hungarian forces to end the occupation of Međimurje. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_occupation_of_Me%C4%91imurje

1925:

Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story in the London Evening News. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh

1955:

According to legend, the NORAD Tracks Santa program began after children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to inquire about Santa Claus's whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number in an advertisement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

chestnut: 1. (countable) An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a nut from a related shrub or tree; or a similar nut from an unrelated plant. 2. (countable) In full chestnut tree: the shrub or tree that bears this nut, the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a shrub or tree of the genus Castanea. 3. (uncountable) Wood of a chestnut tree. 4. (countable, UK) Short for horse chestnut (“any of several tree species of the genus Aesculus, especially Aesculus hippocastanum; the fruit of such a tree”). 5. (by extension) Things resembling a chestnut fruit in appearance or colour. 6. (uncountable) A dark, reddish-brown colour, like that of chestnut fruit (sense 1). chestnut: 7. (countable) A horse with a reddish-brown coat. 8. (countable) An oval or round horny plate located on the inner side of the leg of a horse or other equines, which is thought by some people to correspond with the thumbnail of other animals. 9. (countable, figurative) Chiefly in old chestnut: a joke, meme, phrase, ploy, etc. which has been repeated so often as to have grown ineffective or tiresome; a cliché. 10. Of a deep reddish-brown colour, like that of a chestnut fruit (noun sense 1). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chestnut

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Everything in our political life tends to hide from us that there is anything wiser than our ordinary selves, and to prevent our getting the notion of a paramount right reason.   --Matthew Arnold https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold