The black vulture (Coragyps atratus) is a bird in the New World vulture
family commonly found from the southeastern United States to Central
Chile and Uruguay in South America. Despite the similar name and
appearance, this species is unrelated to the Eurasian black vulture, an
Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae (which includes eagles,
hawks, kites and harriers). The American species is the only extant
member of the New World vulture genus Coragyps in the family
Cathartidae. It inhabits relatively open areas near scattered forests or
shrublands. With a wingspan of 1.5 m (4.9 ft), it is a large bird
though relatively small for a vulture. It has black plumage, a
featherless, grayish-black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak. The
black vulture is a scavenger and feeds on carrion, but will also eat
eggs or kill newborn animals. In areas populated by humans, it also
feeds at garbage dumps. It finds its meals with its keen eyesight and
sense of smell. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only
vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_vulture>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1542:
Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish
prisoners with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss>
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached what is now
Tasmania, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Erskine Childers
was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-
automatic pistol.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers>
1963:
Businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey
Oswald (shooting pictured), the assassin of U.S. President John F.
Kennedy, during a live television broadcast, fueling conspiracy theories
on the matter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald>
2015:
A Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M,
claiming the latter had strayed into Turkish airspace and ignored
warnings to change course.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Cambrian explosion:
1. (evolutionary biology) The relatively rapid appearance, during the
Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, of most major animal
phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record.
2. (by extension) The rapid appearance of anything.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the
more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious … but by
those whom good education, sound morality, and virtue have rendered more
free. Men in general are so constituted that there is nothing they will
endure with so little patience as that views which they believe to be
true should be counted crimes against the laws. … Under such
circumstances they do not think it disgraceful, but most honorable, to
hold the laws in abhorrence, and to refrain from no action against the
government.
--Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tractatus_Theologico-Politicus>
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