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Thursday, 30 January 2020

Golden swallow

Golden swallow.
The golden swallow (Tachycineta euchrysea) is found in Hispaniola and Jamaica mainly in isolated montane forests of Hispaniolan pine. The Jamaican subspecies is likely extinct, perhaps through predation by mammals and habitat loss, and the Hispaniolan subspecies is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN. This is a small swallow with mainly copper-bronze upperparts and white underparts. The legs, feet, and irises are dark brown, and the bill is black. The extant subspecies differs from the Jamaican form in having a more forked tail and bluer upperparts. The female is similar, but with mottled grey-brown on the breast, and occasionally on the throat and undertail. In Hispaniola, this swallow breeds from April to July, laying a clutch consisting of two to four white eggs in a cup nest in Hispaniolan pine, in caves or under eaves. It is an aerial insectivore, usually foraging up to 20 m (66 ft) above the ground.

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

23rd (Northumbrian) Division

23rd (Northumbrian) Division.
The 23rd (Northumbrian) Division was an infantry division of the British Army in the Second World War. Formed in 1939 from a cadre of the Territorial Army's 50th (Northumbrian) Motor Division, it was sent to France in April 1940 with scant training and preparation and inadequate administration, logistics, and heavy weapons. When Germany invaded Belgium, the British Expeditionary Force and French armies advanced, leaving the 23rd Division behind to guard airfields. After the main German attack came through the Ardennes, the division was ordered to the front line to defend the Canal du Nord—the only river between the main German assault and the English Channel. By the time the division arrived, the Germans had already crossed south of their sector where French forces had yet to take up positions. One of the division's brigades was caught by armoured forces and overrun; the other conducted rearguard actions during the retreat to Dunkirk. The remnants of the division were evacuated on 31 May 1940, having suffered heavy losses.

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

Persoonia linearis

Persoonia linearis.
Persoonia linearis, the narrow-leaved geebung, is a shrub native to New South Wales and Victoria in eastern Australia. It reaches 3 m (9.8 ft), or occasionally 5 m (16 ft), in height and has thick, dark grey papery bark. The leaves are linear in shape, up to 9 cm (3.5 in) long, and 0.1 to 0.7 cm (0.04 to 0.28 in) wide. The small yellow flowers appear from December to July, followed by small green fleshy fruits. P. linearis interbreeds with several other Persoonia species where they grow together. This shrub is found in dry forest on poor sandstone-based soils, and is adapted to a fire-prone environment; the plants resprout epicormic buds from beneath their thick bark after bushfires. The fruit are consumed by vertebrates such as kangaroos, possums and currawongs. P. linearis is rare in cultivation as it is very hard to propagate by seed or by cuttings, but once propagated, it adapts readily, preferring acidic soils with good drainage and at least a partly sunny aspect.

Monday, 27 January 2020

Japanese battleship Hyūga

Japanese battleship Hyūga.
Hyūga was the second of two Ise-class battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1910s. The battleship supported Japanese forces in the early 1920s during the Siberian intervention in the Russian Civil War, and assisted survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. The ship was partially modernised between 1927 and 1932 and rebuilt in the pagoda mast style, with further improvements in 1934–1936. Hyūga played a minor role in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but was considered obsolete by the eve of the Pacific War. Following the loss of most of the navy's large aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in mid-1942, the battleship was rebuilt with a flight deck, but lacked aircraft and qualified pilots throughout the war. In late 1944 the ship helped to decoy an American carrier fleet away from the landing beaches at Leyte. Hyūga was sunk during American airstrikes in July 1945. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Japan.)