Song Thrush Research Articles

Molecular characterization and distribution of Haemoproteus minutus (Haemosporida, Haemoproteidae): A pathogenic avian parasite

Recently, the lineage hTURDUS2 of Haemoproteus minutus (Haemosporida, Haemoproteidae) was reported to cause mortality in captive parrots. This parasite lineage is widespread and prevalent in the blackbird Turdus merula throughout its entire distribution range. Species identity of other closely related lineages recently reported in dead parrots remains unclear, but will be important to determine for a better understanding of the epidemiology of haemoproteosis. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based and microscopic methods, we analyzed 265 blood samples collected from 52 species of wild birds in Eurasia (23 samples from Kamchatka Peninsula, 73 from Sakhalin Island, 150 from Ekaterinburg and 19 from Irkutsk regions of Russia). Single infections of the lineages hTURDUS2 (hosts are redwing Turdus iliacus and fieldfare Turdus pilaris), hTUPHI1 (song thrush Turdus philomelos) and hTUCHR01 (fieldfare, redwing, song thrush and brown-headed thrush Turdus chysolaus) were detected. We identified species of these haemoproteids based on morphology of their blood stages and conclude that these lineages belong to H. minutus, a widespread parasite of different species of thrushes (genus Turdus), which serve as reservoir hosts of this haemoproteid infection. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the lineages hTURDUS2, hTUCHR01 and hTUPHI1 of H. minutus are closely related to Haemoproteus pallidus (lineages hPFC1 and hCOLL2), Haemoproteus pallidulus (hSYAT03), and Haemoproteus sp. (hMEUND3); genetic distance among their mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) lineages is small (<1% or<4 nucleotides). All these blood parasites are different in many morphological characters, but are similar due to one feature, which is the pale staining of their macrogametocytes' cytoplasm with Giemsa. Because of the recent publications about mortality caused by the lineages hTUPHI1 and hTURDUS2 of H. minutus in captive parrots in Europe, H. minutus and the closely related H. pallidus and H. pallidulus are worth more attention as these are possible agents of haemoproteosis in exotic birds. The present study provides barcodes for molecular detection of different lineages of H. minutus, and extends information about the distribution of this blood parasite.

The Seroprevalence of Avipoxvirus and Its Association with Avian Malaria (Plasmodium spp.) Infection in Introduced Passerine Birds in the Southern Regions of the North Island of New Zealand

Blood samples were collected from 65 free-ranging birds from six species in the southern North Island of New Zealand. Sera from the birds were tested for the presence of avipoxvirus (APV) antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and blood cells from 55 birds were also tested for Plasmodium spp. by PCR. Forty-five birds (69.2%) tested seropositive to APV. Song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) presented the highest seroprevalence at 100% (4/4), followed by Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula) (96.86%, 31/32), chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) (54.55%, 6/11), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) (25%, 3/12), greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) (25%, 1/4), and European goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) (0%, 0/2). Plasmodium spp. DNA was detected in 15/55 birds (27.3%), including 11 Eurasian blackbirds, one song thrush, and three starlings. Eight Eurasian blackbird isolates (73%) grouped within the subgenus Novyella. Two Eurasian blackbird isolates and the song thrush isolate clustered within a different group with previously reported lineages LINN1 and AFTRU5. In addition, all three starling isolates clustered within the well-characterized lineage Plasmodium (Huffia) elongatum GRW06. All Plasmodium-positive Eurasian blackbirds and the song thrush were seropositive to APV, whereas only 67% of Plasmodium-positive starlings showed evidence of previous exposure to APV. A significant relationship between birds seropositive to APV and birds infected by Plasmodium spp. was observed (chi2 = 5.69, df = 1, P = 0.0086). To the authors' knowledge this is the first report describing the seroprevalence of APV and its association with Plasmodium spp. infection in introduced bird species in New Zealand.

Introduction

Introduction Todd W. Reeser ARTICULATING A VARIETY OF GENDER presentations that have become visible in recent years, the term “transgenre” is now widely used in France. In Changer de sexe, Augst-Merelle and Nicot define the term: “Personne dont le genre ne concorde pas avec son sexe, au regard des stéréotypes imposés par une culture donnée.”1 Although this definition positions the term as culturally specific, the question of its relation to the Anglo-American context cannot remain unasked. Citing Wiktionnaire, the recent reference work La Trans-yclopédie explains that the French term is an “[a]daptation de l’anglais Transgender de trans- et gender.”2 A recent coinage, the English umbrella term “transgender” incorporates a range of practices and constructs that resist sexual or gender stability or normativity, and, as a result, overlaps with terms such as “queer,” “gender fluidity,” “transvestism,” “trans-sexuality,” “butch,” “effeminacy,” and “androgyny.”3 If the French term is adapted from English, what of the largely Anglo-phone field of transgender studies? How has it been adapted to the French context? By comparison with ground-breaking work in Anglophone literary/cultural studies, French studies has been relatively slow to intervene into the bourgeoning discussion, even though a strain of transgender studies relies on theoretical models rooted in French thought. Foucault serves as a key theoretical substratum in Stryker’s delineation of the field in her introduction to The Transgender Studies Reader, Merleau-Ponty grounds considerations of corporality in Gayle Salamon’s Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality (reviewed in this issue), and Deleuze and Guattari’s notions of bodies without organs and of productive becoming have lent themselves to thinking about transgender as movement.4 Having been placed into dialogue with transgender phenomena, such theoretical models are ripe for juxtaposition with French texts and contexts. It may be surprising that French trans studies has not become a more widespread field since French culture has traditionally had close connections to transgender. Georges Burou (1910–87), a doctor who worked in Morocco, was a major figure in sexual reassignment surgery and in transsexual history. The 80s saw the publication of a number of French transsexual texts. Coccinelle (1931–2006), a transsexual performer well known across and beyond Europe, composed an autobiography titled Coccinelle (1987). Doucé’s La Question transexuelle (1986) in many ways foreshadows the current field of [End Page 1] transgender studies, with contents including témoignages, studies on la personne transsexuelle, cultural constructs, cross-cultural differences, and “normes pour les soins du changement chirurgical de sexe et l’hormonothérapie hétérogène.”5 Maxime Foerster documents the rich history of modern transsexuality in Elle ou lui?: une histoire des transsexuels en France (reviewed in this issue). A number of earlier trans figures or characters can be located, such as the abbé de Choisy in the seventeenth century, the Chevalier d’Éon in the eighteenth century, and dandy figures in modernism. Colette has much to say about transgender as well, even if she avoids sexual taxonomies per se. Montaigne discusses the sex change of Marie-Germain, and the Middle Ages provide stories of figures who might be tagged transgender.6 And, of course, Joan of Arc has been taken as a key figure in transgender history.7 As Karine Espineira points out, however, it is really in the twenty-first century that there is an explosion of trans groups, even as transgender becomes substantially more visible in the 90s.8 Alain Berliner’s film Ma Vie en rose (1997), about a boy who wants to be a girl, took the queer transnational world by storm. French films such as Change-moi ma vie (2001), Thelma (2002), Chouchou (2003), Tiresia (2003), Wild Side (2004), and Tomboy (2011) depict a variety of trans characters. Most recently, Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways (2012) focuses on the love relation between a French transwoman and a Québécoise. The twenty-first century has seen a proliferation of widely available published narratives, including Axel Léotard’s Mauvais Genre (2009), Amanda Lear’s Je ne suis pas du tout celle que vous croyez (2009), Alexandra Cerdan’s prococative Transsexuelle et convertie à l...

Science and Alchemy

Science and Alchemy Debora Greger (bio) Letter to a Young Man of 1776 William Bartram (1739-1823) Dear Sir, Of the revolution that ragedin the colonies, you found nothing to say.Over thirty, Quaker, son of a manwho, as he readied another cask of plantsto ship from Philadelphia to London,wondered would you ever amount to anything— he sent you south to collect more species,a trip not put to paper for a decade,till what you recalled was leaves, more leaves,and an alligator battle to find a mate.How the romantics loved that flowered prose,Coleridge slumping over it in a stupor,Wordsworth taking Travels through the Carolinasto Germany, the closest he came to the South . . . how long did I sit in the twenty-first centuryat the old Linnaean Library?The man I had arranged to meet in Londonhad not arrived. I was offered sweetsso British I couldn't name them,the remains of a Christmas party. Too grand for it not to be the eighteenth century,science still abed with alchemy next door,the room looked down on me.Snow wove its lace against long windowsthat searched the parking lot for something [End Page 194] a man could tie someone's name to.Stiffly on a stiffer chair, I sat,a North American weed not yet classified.I didn't recognize myself. Sixty, married a week, I had just saidthe words my husband for the first time,to explain my presence in that great hall.I had not taken his name, just the ring.On my left hand, I felt the weightof the silver as it warmed to me. Surplus Poem Solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appelunt —Tacitus In the corner of Basin Surplus, a snake of ropecoiled in wait: thick as the arm of the eight-year oldI would turn into next week, it gathered dust—no, that took effort. In the heat it knew a quarterburned a hole in my pocket: the week's allowance.What did I have to tie up, anyhow, but the babyMother had brought home? Wasn't one brother enough? IIBayonets detached from their guns, canteens filled with airwrung dry by some other desert— where was my father [End Page 195] after the war? As if from a trench, he peered over a bankof mutant trigger-finger mittens. Only he could seean entrenching tool digging for clams— if we drove to the coast. Downwind from the reactor baking a fresh batchof weapons-grade plutonium, we made a desertout of family and called it peace. Complaint of a Song Thrush King of the alley that runs behind England,I sing what you can't see:here lies all you cast out like devils;there a rat feeds on the garbage of heaven.From the top of a tree no one planted—the one you call trash, for want of its name—I smooth the air, lord of all I survey,beak pointing to the Arctic wind.I do not sing your garden snail or his lies.I pound his shell on a rock and feast—but not yet. The epic journey of a daygoes nowhere, at great length, as Homer proved.How can you sleep? Sing the vestment of frostand the soul's dainty trail of slime,pearly under the Morning Star. NovemberI translate from Anglo-Saxon gravelto the mud of Estuary English.Medlar and sloe sweeten like song in their decay. [End Page 196] Debora Greger Debora Greger's most recent book of poems is By Herself (Penguin, 2012). She is poet-in-residence at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida. Copyright © 2013 Debora Greger

Egg arrangement in avian clutches covaries with the rejection of foreign eggs

In birds, the colour, maculation, shape, and size of their eggs play critical roles in discrimination of foreign eggs in the clutch. So far, however, no study has examined the role of egg arrangement within a clutch on host rejection responses. We predicted that individual females which maintain consistent egg arrangements within their clutch would be better able to detect and reject foreign eggs than females without a consistent egg arrangement (i.e. whose eggs change positions more often across incubation). We tested this "egg arrangement hypothesis" in blackbirds (Turdus merula) and song thrush (T. philomelos). Both species are suitable candidates for research on egg rejection, because they show high inter-individual variation and individual repeatability in egg rejection responses. As predicted, using our custom-defined metrics of egg arrangement, rejecter females' clutches showed significantly more consistent patterns in egg arrangement than acceptor females' clutches. Only parameters related to blunt pole showed consistent differences between rejecters and acceptors. This finding makes biological sense because it is already known that song thrush use blunt pole cues to reject foreign eggs. We propose that a disturbance of the original egg arrangement pattern by the laying parasite may alert host females that maintain a consistent egg arrangement to the risk of having been parasitized. Once alerted, these hosts may shift their discrimination thresholds to be more restrictive so as to reject a foreign egg with higher probability. Future studies will benefit from experimentally testing whether these two and other parasitized rejecter host species may rely on the use of consistent egg arrangements as a component of their anti-parasitic defence mechanisms.

Ecological predictors of reduced avian reproductive investment in the southern hemisphere

Despite intensive research, the factors driving spatial patterns in life‐history traits remain poorly understood. One of the most frequently documented, and paradoxically, least understood patterns, is the latitudinal gradient of increasing avian clutch size at higher latitudes. These gradients are less marked in the southern hemisphere, thus clutch sizes tend to be smaller at southern latitudes than at equivalent northern ones. We exploited a natural experiment provided by the introduction of European passerines to New Zealand (NZ) to test three widely proposed ecological drivers of this pattern, i.e. the nest predation, Ashmole’s seasonality, and the breeding density hypotheses. We focus on the blackbird Turdus merula and the song thrush T. philomelos as founder effects do not have a major influence on the reproductive traits of their introduced populations. Both species laid smaller clutches in NZ than in Europe. These reductions had stabilised within one hundred years and were not associated with a compensatory increase in investment in individual offspring by laying larger eggs. In contrast to the nest predation hypothesis, daily nest predation rates were lower in NZ than in Europe. Smaller southern hemisphere clutches were associated with higher conspecific population densities and a relaxation of seasonal clutch size trends. These findings thus provide some support for both Ashmole’s seasonality and the breeding density hypotheses. Analyses across 11 European passerines introduced to NZ suggest, however, that neither of these hypotheses provide general explanations of smaller clutches in the southern hemisphere. We suggest that reduced seasonality and lower nest predation promote increased breeding densities and adult survival in the southern hemisphere. The later may drive smaller southern clutch sizes by generating spatial variation in the outcome of the trade‐off between reproductive investment and longevity.

Tu as chang� ma vie

Tu as chang� ma vie

La recherche de la couleur by Jean-Marc Parisis

Reviews 281 Parisis, Jean-Marc. La recherche de la couleur. Paris: Stock, 2012. ISBN 978-2-23406415 -7. Pp. 186. 18 a. Novels about novelists can be problematic, but here the consciously literary firstperson narration of the main character, François Novel, allows us to see the inner workings of this writer of what others call histoires d’amour as well as his critical perception of French society today. What keeps us following the plot, which otherwise might be banal, is the biting style. Parisis doesn’t treat his characters with much kindness, nor does he spare us scenes of ugliness, but these are part of the richness of La recherche. This story essentially recounts the sufferings of a not-so-young man who is feeling at odds with the world. In the opening paragraph, during a party, he asks himself “Qu’est-ce que mon corps—autrement dit ce qu’il me restait de ma vie—faisait là?” (9). François is bored with friends and colleagues, displeased by the fact that Marianne, the wife he has loved and desired for years, has grown older and looks her age, and he is vaguely bothered by negative reactions to his work. He has managed to avoid facing the malaise of living through sexual pleasure (“Je pensais à Marianne, à ce qu’elle m’avait permis d’oublier pendant toutes ces années: ce monde qui commençait à me peser” [44]) and writing (“On écrivait pour s’oublier, dans la joie de s’oublier” [79]). He is now seeking something, in the manner of the German Romantics who are the topic of his current research, in particular Novalis, whom he cites frequently. François spends much time looking for a poetry of life that seems sadly lacking in life,here in twenty-first century France.Perhaps because of this disconnect,La recherche is a book of contrasts. Short scenes, almost cinematic in nature, show Parisis’s gift for developing oppositions as seen in the juxtaposition of his encounters with a hideously manipulative aging singer (la mort?) and his chance meetings of young women full of honesty, energy, and life. Parisis also moves from the concrete to the abstract quite well. Events in the present, including Marianne’s sudden death, spark reminiscences about the past and give readers access to background and personal philosophy in an unobtrusive way. The young François, seriously marked by his mother’s death, found refuge in black-and-white movies until the day when he, adolescent, discovered that death could be held at bay by writing. Writing was the way out of the colorless world and a means to effectuate “la recherche de la couleur” (109). It is perhaps his overdeveloped belief in the power of writing and writers, however, that allows François, adult, to avoid living. His countless references to authors by name, through quotations , and through paraphrases at key moments keep emotions at a distance and it is not until the end of the novel that our character, not much older than he was at the beginning, is ready to live. Is it odd to imagine a bildungsroman about an adult? Yes, but this novel comes quite close. Metropolitan State University of Denver (CO) Ann Williams ...

Comparability of Wing Length Measurements Based on Data Collected at two Twin Stations during Migration

Abstract Zaniewicz G. 2012. Comparability of wing length measurements based on data collected at two twin stations during migration. Ring 34: 37-43. Data collected during bird migration include measurements taken during ringing. The variety and quality of information, which these measurements can potentially provide, depend strongly on their accuracy and comparability. The analysis of the comparability was made based on the measurements of wing length taken by different ringers during autumn migratory seasons at the southern Baltic coast. An experiment was run with the measurements taken from six passerine species during several (from 8 to 10, depending on the species) migratory seasons at two twin sites belonging to Mierzeja Wioelana station. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to evaluate how strongly the habits of different measurers influence the measurements taken. The results of this experiment show that correlations between the measurements collected at these two sites are strong and statistically significant for the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin), Robin (Erithacus rubecula) and Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos). However, for the Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) and Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) the relations were not significant. The last species allow to consider other causes, independent from human factor, which are possibly responsible for the average wing length local variability. In such species, we still need to look closer at the potential sources of their differentiation, such as the preferences of habitat selection between sexes, populations, etc.

Winter bird activity in fields on a split conventional/organic farm in northern England

Winter bird activity on 18 fields of a split conventional/organic farm in northern England was surveyed in six winters between 2002 and 2009. The three winter covers on the 10 conventional fields were grass, cereals (winter wheat and barley) and oilseed rape whilst grass/clover, cereal stubble (wheat) and vegetable stubbles (beans, potatoes, Brassicas) covered the eight organic fields. The fields were also classified by dominant boundary cover (woodland, hedges, tall herbaceous vegetation). The influence of field and boundary covers, and any interactions, on the activity of 40 bird species was investigated. Activity of 30 species was significantly associated with field cover, with most activity in fields with stubble, especially for seed-eaters such as linnet Carduelis cannabina and skylark Alauda arvensis but also for invertebrate feeders such as jackdaw Corvus monedula. Several species were more active on organic grass/clover than on conventional grass. There was more bird activity in oilseed rape fields than in either winter cereals or grass. There were only six significant activity relationships with field boundaries, with four species most active in fields with adjacent woodland. The seven significant field cover/boundary interactions indicated most activity with organic covers in hedged fields. Song thrush Turdus philomelos was the only species with a positive relationship to any conventional crop whilst the results suggest that winter activity of 25 species was positively influenced by organic management.

Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain and Ireland in 2011

This is the 75th annual report of the British Trust for Ornithology's Ringing Scheme, covering data received and work carried out in 2011. A review of priorities for the Scheme identified the need to increase submission of nest records through the Nest Record Scheme and to extend the network of Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) studies. Collection of different demographic parameters from the same site (eg nest records, numbers of breeding pairs, adult survival, etc) can provide a powerful tool to identify reasons for population change. Constant Effort Sites (CES) data showed long-term declines in abundance for four migrants (Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus, Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca, Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus and Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus) and three resident species (Willow Tit Poecile montana, Song Thrush Turdus philomelos and Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus). Robin Erithacus rubecula and Reed Bunting had the lowest survival rates since CES began and survival-rate estimates were also significantly below average for Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus and Wren Troglodytes troglodytes, two small resident species that are particularly vulnerable to cold weather. Abundance of Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, Great Tit Parus major, Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis and Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula recorded by CES increased. Nine of the 16 resident species covered by CES also had higher-than-average productivity, in particular the highest ever recorded for Dunnock Prunella modularis, Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs and Bullfinch. The number of Constant Effort Sites increased in 2011, with a higher percentage of reedbed habitat covered by the scheme, but fewer dry and wet scrub sites. In 2011 the number of RAS projects increased by 34 to 158. Survival trends were generated for 46 species and the use of colour marks has been promoted to increase the resighting probability of trap-shy species such as House Sparrow Passer domesticus and Starling Sturnus vulgaris, and for species with low recapture probability such as seabirds. As in 2010, the total number of birds ringed in 2011 (1,151,665) was the highest ever. It included 540,696 first-year birds, 383,136 adults (birds in their second calendar year or later) and 27,495 unaged birds. All ringing data for 2011 were computerised. In addition, there were 166,061 recaptures of ringed birds at or near the ringing site. The increased numbers of fully grown birds ringed is probably due to three main factors: high survival of some species, as suggested by CES results, combined with high productivity in 2011 and the increasing number of ringers in the Scheme catching higher numbers of birds. In total 20,702 BTO-ringed birds were recovered (found dead or recaptured away from the ringing site) in 2011, the highest ever as a result of the increased number of birds ringed in the past decade, combined with efforts to increase reports of ringed birds by the public, an increasing number of colour-ringing projects and associated resightings, and a change in the way recoveries are processed. Recoveries of 17 BTO- and 13 foreign-ringed birds that have extended our existing knowledge of movements of a species, are unusual movements, or are a new longevity record are also presented. In 2011 40,845 nest records were submitted (over 70% electronically), the highest total since 1998. Of these, 82% originated from England, 9% from Wales and 8% from Scotland, with the remaining 1% divided equally between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Long-term nest productivity trends (1966–2010) were significant for 36 of the 71 species for which sufficient data were available, and seven of these (Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus, Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis, Willow Warbler, Bullfinch, Coal Tit Periparus ater, Treecreeper Certhia familiaris and Chaffinch) showed a significant decline over time. The 2011 breeding season was characterised by an early start compared to the previous five years, possibly due to the warmest April on record.

Rousseau's Knees

Rousseau's Knees Peggy Kamuf It may seem a little perverse to address the topic "Rousseau and emotion" through what seems, at least on its most evident surface, such an unemotional text as Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. In its 100 Pléiade pages the word "émotion" occurs but three times. Indeed, this text is the record of a willed flight from emotion, which is all but banished from the ambling thoughts strung together in the reveries. The experience the text aims to record is the "sentiment de l'existence depouillé de toute autre affection."1 Emotion is associated with agitated movement and random reactions of a kind the writer-walker wants to avoid. But precisely because the work is in flight from emotional agitation, it keeps emotion's image in its rearview mirror, so to speak. Looked at from this angle, one may see how a certain idea of emotion is being repeatedly defined by this text. We can begin to discern that image by looking at the three occurrences of émotion. The first is from the Fourth Promenade, when Rousseau is recalling how a friend almost knocked the young Jean-Jacques's brains out: Je ne vis de ma vie une agitation pareille à celle de ce pauvre garçon voyant mon sang ruisseler dans mes cheveux. Il crut m'avoir tué. Il se précipite sur moi, m'embrasse, me serre étroitement en fondant en larmes et poussant des cris perçans. Je l'embrassois aussi de toute ma force en pleurant comme lui dans une émotion confuse qui n'étoit pas sans quelque douceur. (OC 1:1037, emphasis added) Despite the gruesomeness of the accident, this is a sweet memory, associated with the uncertain emotion "qui n'étoit pas sans quelque douceur." It is sweet to recall how the poor perpetrator manifested sincere affection toward me, Jean-Jacques. At the thought I might be dead, he almost went mad. In its next occurrence, émotion is likewise associated with a child's spontaneous show of affection toward Jean-Jacques, now a lonely old man: Je marchois distrait et rêvant sans regarder autour de moi quand tout à coup je me sentis saisir les genoux. Je regarde et je vois un petit enfant de cinq ou six ans qui serroit mes genoux de toute sa force en me regardant d'un air si familier et si caressant que mes entrailles s'émurent. [...] [J]e suis repassé plusieurs fois par Clignancourt dans l'espérance d'y revoir cet enfant, mais je n'ai plus revu ni lui ni le pere, et il ne m'est plus resté de cette rencontre qu'un souvenir assez vif, mêlé toujours de douceur et de tristesse, comme toutes les émotions qui pénetrent encor quelque-fois jusqu'à mon cœur. (OC 1:1089-90, emphasis added) [End Page 132] Like the preceding anecdote, this one recounts a chance event as the occasion for émotion. Both are sweet memories insofar as the other's affection for the subject was made manifest by unmistakable signs: actions, gestures, and bodily eruptions like cries or tears. They also share a particular trajectory, which is most apparent in the scene between the old man and the child. The dreamy walker has been startled out of his reverie by the shock of an outside force, the child's impulsive embrace. Seeing the benevolent face of the boy, he is moved, "mes entrailles s'émurent." The movement of émouvoir draws the subject out of himself into a social space where he becomes an object for others. There he is seized by the knees, by the genoux, that is, also by the jenous, where the singular I and the plural we gap into each other and leave a trace of inappropriable otherness. Later on, we'll come back to this recollection so as to read there a scene of Rousseau seized by writing in his body. The space of the je-nous is always potentially the danger zone for the walker-writer, the agitated zone of plural passions he has fled. In the encounter with the child, this dangerous move is compensated by the face "me regardant d'un...

Parasitic helminthes — probable cause of death of birds

Abstract Parasitic helminths were the probable cause of death of 41 passeriform birds (29 adults and 12 juveniles in their first year of life) caught in the net during the spring and autumn ringing (1986–2010). The birds (1 Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, 1 House Martin Delichon urbica, 2 Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus, 9 Great Tit Parus major, 3 Willow Tit Poecile palustris, 1 Great Reed Acrocephalus arundinaceus, 1 Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita, 3 Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla, 2 Dunnock Prunella modularis, 1 Magpie Pica pica, 5 Robin Erithacus rubecula, 9 Common Blackbird Turdus merula and 3 Song Thrush T. philomelos) were caught in the environs of Přerov (Czech Republic). The helminths: trematodes, tapeworms, nematodes and hook worms, were located in the intestine, glandular and muscular stomach, cloaca, rectum, gall bladder, liver, pulmonary cavity, air sac, nasal and orbital cavity and subcutaneous tissue of the hosts. The intensity of invasion with different species of parasites was up to 734 per host. Some parasites Brachydistomum ventricosum, Mosesia sittae, Aprocta cylindrica, Diplotriaena tridens were acquired at the wintering grounds. All the helmniths were heteroxenous, with development cycle involving intermediate hosts (invertebrates) which are part of the birds’ diet.

Molecular characterization of vanA-containing Enterococcus from migratory birds: song thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Molecular characterization of vanA-containing Enterococcus from migratory birds: song thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Helminths in endemic, native and introduced passerines in New Zealand

The aim of the study was to obtain preliminary data on the occurrence of helminths in New Zealand endemic passerines. We also examined a small number of non-endemic native and introduced birds. Altogether, of 388 samples of faeces or dead birds, 5.4% contained evidence of trematode infections, 7.7% of cestode infections and 1.5% of Capillaria. Trematodes found in the gall bladders of saddlebacks and one song thrush were tentatively identified as belonging to the family Dicrocoeliidae but definitive identifications have yet to be made. The taxonomic position of the trematodes found in tui is unknown. However, these are the first records of trematodes in New Zealand endemic passerines. The presence of cestode infections in saddlebacks, tui and the North Island robin, and of Capillaria in tui, appears not to have been recorded previously.

Names Proper and Improper in Richard Millet's Siom Novels

Since 1983 Richard Millet has published a considerable volume of fictional and critical writings, including short stories, recits, and twelve novels. This study concentrates on four key novels published between 1995 and 2003 that take place in the imaginary village of Siom in the Correze: La Gloire des Pythres, L'Amour des trois sœurs Piale, Lauve le pur, and Ma vie parmi les ombres. Names feature increasingly prominently in these novels, and the aim of this study is to describe the different ways in which they are present and to analyse the functions they perform. They are found to have extraordinarily powerful effects. Some names, predominantly those from France's literary heritage, act as tokens of a dreamed-of communion with the past. Others, names of fictional characters and places, are found to be so intensely meaningful that they determine destinies. Yet others, the names of the main families in the novels, provide fragile foundations. Their names, on the one hand, serve to root them in a village and a genealogy, but, on the other, embody forces that destroy all hope of enduring. In each case the proper noun expresses a dream of presence that remains unfulfilled.

Avian eggshell pigments are not consistently correlated with colour measurements or egg constituents in two Turdus thrushes

The colourful appearance of avian eggshells is a prominent aspect of maternal reproductive effort in birds. Some differences in eggshell coloration have been reported to co‐vary with various measures of maternal condition and these patterns support the hypothesis that, in some bird species, several aspects of eggshell colour (i.e. primary chroma and brightness) function as a signal of maternal and offspring quality to induce greater paternal investment. We directly quantified eggshell pigment concentrations of blackbird Turdus merula and song thrush T. philomelos eggshells and tested how the two key pigments (protoporphyrin IX and biliverdin) co‐varied with other eggshell traits and egg constituents as measures of maternal reproductive investment, including total yolk carotenoid concentration, total lipid concentration, yolk mass, and shell thickness. Contrary to predictions, we detected few statistical patterns overall. We found that protoporphyrin IX concentration was negatively associated with blue‐green chroma in blackbirds but not in song thrush. The concentration of protoporphyrin IX was significantly greater in blackbirds and also showed different patterns of association with total yolk lipids and yolk carotenoid concentrations between these two species (significant species interaction terms). Our results reveal that it is not appropriate to simply assume in these two avian species that reflectance‐based eggshell colour measures are a suitable proxy for eggshell pigment concentrations or can be used as consistent predictors of maternal reproductive investment. These results highlight the need to assess and validate the strength and direction of the statistical relationships between eggshell colour measures, pigment concentrations, and maternal resource deposition in the egg for other species of birds.

Which forest bird species are the main hosts of the tick, Ixodes ricinus, the vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, during the breeding season?

Wild birds are important hosts for vector–borne pathogens, especially those borne by ticks. However, few studies have been conducted on the role of different bird species within a community as hosts of vector–borne pathogens. This study addressed individual and species factors that could explain the burden of Ixodes ricinus on forest birds during the reproductive periods of both vectors and hosts. The goal was to identify which bird species contribute the most to the tick population at the community level. Birds were mist-netted on four plots in 2008 and on seven plots in 2009 in two forests (Sénart and Notre Dame, near Paris, France). The dependence of the tick load per bird upon environmental conditions (questing nymph density, year and plot) and on host species traits (species, age, sex, body size, vertical space use, level of innate and acquired immunity) was analysed. Finally, the relative contribution of each bird species to the local dynamics of ticks was estimated, while accounting for their respective abundance. Tick burden differed markedly between bird species and varied according to questing nymph density. Bird species with a high body mass, those that forage low in the vegetation, and those that had a high innate immune response and a high spleen mass were more likely to have a high tick burden. Four species (the Common Blackbird, Turdus merula, the European Robin, Erithacus rubecula, the Song Thrush, Turdus philomelos, and the Winter Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes) hosted more than 90% of the ticks in the local bird community. These species, and particularly T. merula which was host to a high proportion of the nymphs, are likely to contribute significantly to the circulation of pathogens for which they are competent, such as the agent of Lyme borreliosis.

Effect of climate change on the arrival and breeding dates of the song thrush (Turdus philomelos) and chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) observed in Voronezh reserve

The data of Voronezh reserve meteorological station for the period 1936–2010 testify to a significant increase in the average, minimum, and maximum temperatures in March and a well-marked increase in the average and maximum temperatures in April. The spring arrival of the song thrush and chaffinch to their nesting sites correlates with the average March temperature. Birds arrive much earlier in warmer springs than in cold ones; however, a reliable downward trend of dates in the arrival of both species was not revealed. Reproduction begins with the laying of the first egg and correlates with the sum of positive temperatures in the period prior to nesting. In warm springs, which have become frequent over the last 30 years, both species start laying eggs earlier; a breeding peak is quickly formed, and it lasts longer. Also, part of the population produces 2 or 3 broods. The following spring, birds tend to nest earlier even if the temperature drops.

Pour une histoire de l'intime et de ses variations (review)

Reviewed by: Pour une histoire de l'intime et de ses variations Lesley Walker (bio) Anne Coudreuse et Françoise Simonet-Tenant, eds. Pour une histoire de l'intime et de ses variations. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2009. 196pp. 20€. ISBN 978-2-296-10791-5. We have reached a historical moment when a wealthy young Amer ican can declare that privacy is no longer a "social norm." In an interview with TechCrunch, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, declared provocatively: "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people" (cited in Huffington Post, 18 March 2010). And thus, in December 2009, Zuckerberg and his programming posse did away with the privacy settings of some 350 million Facebook users! This wunderkind of technological exhibitionism recalls, however unintentionally, the very debates that gave shape to our modern period. That is, the invention of the modern self as a being with an intimate and private subjectivity that somehow requires expression. The collection Pour une histoire de l'intime, edited by Anne Coudreuse and Françoise Simonet-Tenant, charts the historical contours of this evolution in France from the eighteenth century to the present. The editors begin by recognizing that their project reposes on the shoulders of scholars from the 1970s and 1980s such as Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Michel de Certeau, and Philippe Lejeune, [End Page 551] who inaugurated and gave legitimacy to studies about the non-events of everyday living among mostly ordinary people, including girls. They likewise acknowledge the group of French historians such as Philippe Ariès, Georges Duby, and Arlette Farge who undertook the vast project of writing a history of private life from the Greeks to modern times. With these impressive predecessors in mind, Coudreuse and Simonet-Tenant nonetheless stake out new ground by attempting a diachronic synthesis of the malleable and slippery concept of the "intimate." Here is how they put it: "En quoi l'histoire des formulations de l'intime s'écritelle dans un itinéraire qui nous conduirait de la conquête du droit à l'intime jusqu'à son exhibition en passant par son appropriation progressive et accidentée?" (10). The ten essays in the book also explore how and why the eighteenth century can be said to have invented the intimate; why the nineteenth century made it a central preoccupation; how diaries and personal journals construct a sense of intimacy; and, finally, whether the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century diktat to express publicly one's most intimate self caused some to lose their souls. The collection begins with two solidly researched articles by Véronique Montémont and Simonet-Tenant that trace the evolution of the term "intimate" from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Based on statistical analysis, dictionaries, and the BnF catalogue of titles, the two essays offer quantitative evidence that the term does indeed develop through time. Montémont describes how the notion of the intimate evolves from a relationship of affection with another person in the seventeenth century to the idea of a self with interiority before the Revolution, and, finally by the end of the nineteenth century, the term comes to signify depth and profundity in four separate spheres: physical, moral, relational, and ethical. In Simonet-Tenant's article, we witness a parallel development with the secularization of the confession and its displacement from the confessional to letters and personal journals during the eighteenth century. One would be remiss, however, to assume that confidences and secrets were always shared in letters and diaries. To the contrary, Simonet-Tenant offers persuasive proof of a slow evolution in letter and journal writing towards an emotive self with secrets to tell that becomes a hallmark of nineteenth-century Romanticism but is hardly present earlier. Jean Goldzinck's article on Voltaire provides, fittingly enough, a witty refutation of this fashionable trendiness by the master himself. Goldzinck's Voltaire has nothing to confess: "Indifférence à soi en tant que sujet individualisé, indifférence à toute instance de culpabilisation morale ou religieuse (qu'ai-je fait de ma vie?), indifférence aux tabous (l'homosexualité, l'argent)" (71). Philippe Lejeune's...