The ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) is a mammal of the raccoon family native to arid regions of North America. It is widely distributed and well adapted to disturbed areas. It has been legally trapped for its fur. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The species is known by variety of different names, such as ring-tailed cat, miner's cat, civet cat, and cacomistle (or cacomixtle), though the last of these can refer to B. sumichrasti.The ringtail is the state mammal of Arizona. == Description == The ringtail is black to dark brown in color with pale underparts. The animal has a pointed...

The Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa. It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield. The sexes are similar. Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America. == Taxonomy == The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of ...

The common loon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look...

The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step which facilitates walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old.The American coot is a migratory...

The Man'yōshū (万葉集, pronounced [maɰ̃joꜜːɕɯː]; literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves") is the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed. The chronologically last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759 (No. 4516). It contains many poems from a much earlier period, with the...

The nares-jux (нарс-юх) or Siberian lyre is a musical instrument, a type of box-lyre, played by the peoples of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russian Siberia. == Etymology == The Ostyak (Khanty people) term the instrument nares-jux, meaning "musical wood" or "singing tree" in the Khanty language. The same instrument is played by the Mansi people (formerly known as Vogul), and is known as sangkultap (or sangvyltap, санквылтап) in the Vogul language.Various names and spellings include: naresyuk, nars-yukh, naras-yux, nars-juh, nares-yuk, possibly nanus narsus, panan-juh, or shongoort. ��2...

The Mansi languages are spoken by the Mansi people in Russia along the Ob River and its tributaries, in the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Sverdlovsk Oblast. Traditionally considered a single language, they constitute a branch of the Uralic languages, often considered most closely related to neighbouring Khanty and then to Hungarian. The base dialect of the Mansi literary language is the Sosva dialect, a representative of the northern language. The discussion below is based on the standard language. Fixed word order is typical in Mansi. Adverbials and participles play an important role in...

Old Believers or Old Ritualists are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1666. Resisting the accommodation of Russian piety to the contemporary forms of Greek Orthodox worship, these Christians were anathematized, together with their ritual, in a Synod of 1666–67, producing a division in Eastern Europe between the Old Believers and those who followed the state church in its condemnation of the Old Rite. Russian speakers refer to the schism itself as...

The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the British Invasion of the United States until their touring ban in 1965. Their third single, the Ray Davies-penned "You Really Got Me", became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the Top 10 in the United States.The Kinks' music drew from a wide range of influences,...

In Greek mythology, dreams were sometimes personified as Oneiros (Ancient Greek: Ὄνειρος, lit. 'dream') or Oneiroi (Ὄνειροι, 'dreams'). In the Iliad of Homer, Zeus sends an Oneiros to appear to Agamemnon in a dream, while in Hesiod's Theogony, the Oneiroi are the sons of Nyx (Night), and brothers of Hypnos (Sleep). Oneiros was also, according to some myths, the name of one of the sons of Achilles with Deidamia. == Sources == For the ancient Greeks, dreams were not generally personified. However, a few instances of the personification of dreams, some perhaps solely poetic, can be found in ancient...