Thursday, May 17, 2007

From the Double-Tongued Dictionary

I just love this one:

tidbitting: n. Quail are considered monogamous, but there is a caveat. Often a male will lose a mate, and though he takes care of the little ones, he’s not above seeking a new mate to share the chores. He does this by offering a female (who probably has a brood of her own) delicious bits of food. This practice is called “tidbitting” and is often successful in luring the female away from her own kids and spouse. These kinds of shenanigans are evidently prevalent among all sorts of species. —“Gambel’s quail do justice to their taxonomic name” by Lee Reynolds in Tucson Azstarnet.com (Arizona) May 7, 2007.

1 comment:

Charles said...

I love quail. That they're monogamous makes me love them even more.

They're all over Phoenix and they're very urban creatures, although somewhat skittish.

A few weeks ago, I saw what must have been a happy quail couple skitting through my parking lot.

I love watching them scurry.