Bird outline3/26/2023 ![]() Aesop’s fables abound in bird characters. Various bird attributes, real or imagined, have led to their symbolic use in language as in art. The Bible refers to Noah’s use of the raven and dove to bring him information about the proverbial Flood. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and paintings, for example, include bird figures. Long before ornithology was practiced as a science, interest in birds and the knowledge of them found expression in conversation and stories, which then crystallized into the records of general culture. Bird figures were created by prehistoric humans in the Lascaux Grotto of France and have featured prominently in the mythology and literature of societies throughout the world. Since earliest times birds have been not only a material but also a cultural resource. More than 1,000 extinct species have been identified from fossil remains. Their sense of smell is not highly developed, and auditory range is limited. A more-elaborate definition would note that they are warm-blooded vertebrates more related to reptiles than to mammals and that they have a four-chambered heart (as do mammals), forelimbs modified into wings (a trait shared with bats), a hard-shelled egg, and keen vision, the major sense they rely on for information about the environment.
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