The 'Foumart' or 'Foul-Marten', is an old name for which creature?
"by assuming different ecological niches; the pine marten feeds on birds and rodents more frequently, while the beech marten feeds on fruits and insects. There is however one case of a subadult beech marten being killed by a pine marten. The beech marten has been known to kill European polecats on rare occasions. Red foxes, lynxes and mountain lions may prey on adults, whereas juveniles are vulnerable from attack by birds of prey and wildcats. There is, however, one case from Germany of a beech marten killing a domestic cat. The beech marten is a widespread species which occurs throughout"
"have been a mutation similar to that found in the Scottish Fold. The name ""sumxu"" originally described the yellow-throated marten, but a series of mistranslations caused the name to be applied to the alleged cat or cat-like animal. Michael Boym (ca. 1612-1659), a Polish Jesuit missionary to south China, was the first Westerner to describe the sumxu in his illustrated book ""Flora Sinensis"" (1656). ""Sum xu"" was the Portuguese rendering of ""songshu"", meaning ""pine rat"" and the description indicated the yellow-throated marten (""Martes flavigula"") indigenous to that region. The white lop-eared cat, however, was said to be found in a"
"long, shaped like a crocodile with four webbed feet and a powerful tail. Folklorists speculate that Cornish author Tony 'Doc' Shiels ""invented"" the creature as a hoax, having coined the name ""Morgawr"" after claiming to sight it in 1976. According to the story, Shiels sent the ""Falmouth Packet"" newspaper photographs of the monster attributed to an anonymous individual called ""Mary F"". The same year in July, fishermen John Cock and George Vinnicombe claimed to have sighted the creature in the waters off Lizard Point. Also in 1976, Shiels claimed to have photographed the creature lying low in the water near"
"Dictionary"" notes that the word alcatraz was originally applied to the frigatebird; the modification to albatross was perhaps influenced by Latin ""albus"", meaning ""white"", in contrast to frigatebirds, which are black. In modern Portuguese, the word used for the bird, ""albatroz"", is in turn derived from the English ""albatross"". They were once commonly known as goonie birds' or gooney birds, particularly those of the North Pacific. In the Southern Hemisphere, the name mollymawk is still well established in some areas, which is a corrupted form of ""malle-mugge"", an old Dutch name for the northern fulmar. The name ""Diomedea"", assigned to"
"in Latin America and parts of Europe. In France, the coypu is known as a ""ragondin"". In Dutch, it is known as ""beverrat"" (beaver rat). In German, it is known as ""Nutria"", ""Biberratte"" (beaver rat), or ""Sumpfbiber"" (swamp beaver). In Italy, instead, the popular name is, as in North America and Asia, ""nutria"", but it is also called ""castorino"" (""little beaver""), by which its fur is known in Italy. In Swedish, the animal is known as ""sumpbäver"" (marsh/swamp beaver). In Brazil, the animal is known as ""ratão-do-banhado"", ""nútria"", or ""caxingui"" (the last from the Tupi language). The coypu was first"
"of the genus, the pale crag martin, ""P. obsoleta"" of north Africa, the dusky crag martin ""P. concolor"" of southern Asia and the Eurasian crag martin ""P. rupestris"". The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek ""ptuon"" (πτύον), ""a fan"", referring to the shape of the opened tail, and Procne (Πρόκνη), a mythological girl who was turned into a swallow. The specific name ""fuligula"" means ""sooty-throated"", from Latin ""fuligo"" ""soot"" and ""gula"" ""throat"". The three ""Ptyonoprogne"" species are members of the swallow family, and are placed in the subfamily Hirundininae, which comprises all swallows and martins except the very"
"had already used to identify giant, extinct members of other modern groups known only from fossils, including giant tapir and ground sloth specimens. A scientific name had not yet been given to the new species, the specimen usually being referred to as the ""Grand Animal fossile des Carrières de Maëstricht"" or ""Great Fossil Animal of the Maastricht quarries"". In 1822 William Daniel Conybeare named it ""Mosasaurus"" after the Latin name (""Mosa"") of the Maas (Meuse) River passing along Mount Saint Peter, the second skull being the holotype, MNHNP AC9648. The specific name (epithet) ""hoffmanni"" was added by Gideon Mantell in"
"Numbat The numbat (""Myrmecobius fasciatus""), also known as the banded anteater, marsupial anteater, or walpurti, is an insectivorous marsupial native to Western Australia and recently re-introduced to South Australia. Its diet consists almost exclusively of termites. Once widespread across southern Australia, its range is now restricted to several small colonies, and it is listed as an endangered species. The numbat is an emblem of Western Australia and protected by conservation programs. The numbat genus ""Myrmecobius"" is the sole member of the family Myrmecobiidae, one of the four families that make up the order Dasyuromorphia, the Australian marsupial carnivores. The species"
"ponds include the triton and the Iberian Frog. Mammals include the bobcat and the marten. This animal is a mustelid, and is native to Northern Europe. Its body is up to , and its bushy tail can be . Males are slightly larger than females; on average a marten weighs around . Their fur is usually light to dark brown and grows longer and silkier during the winter months. They have a cream to yellow coloured ""bib"" marking on their throats. Nocturnal and somewhat arboreal in habit, it eats small mammals, small birds, insects, and frogs. They also eat fruits"
"Klabautermann A Klabautermann is a water kobold that assists sailors and fishermen on the Baltic and North Sea in their duties. It is a merry and diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an irrepressible musical talent. It is believed to rescue sailors washed overboard. The name comes from the Low German verb ""klabastern"" meaning ""rumble"" or ""make a noise"". An etymology deriving the name from the verb ""kalfatern"" (""to caulk"") has also been suggested. His image is of a small sailor in yellow with a tobacco pipe and woolen sailor's cap, often wearing a caulking hammer."
"in the well-known illustrated German book ""Max and Moritz"" dating from 1865. Jim Dixon, in Kingsley Amis's comic novel ""Lucky Jim"" (1954), repeatedly calls his department head, Professor Welch, an ""old cockchafer."" The Italian, specifically Neapolitan, collection of stories ""Il Pentamerone"" of Giambattista Basile (in its English translation by Norman M. Penzer from Benedetto Croce's Italian) contains a tale on Day 3, Night 5: ""The Cockchafer, Mouse and Grasshopper"". There have been four Royal Navy ships named HMS ""Cockchafer"". Cockchafer The cockchafer, colloquially called May bug or doodlebug, is a European beetle of the genus ""Melolontha"", in the family Scarabaeidae."
"of image probably stems from sailors, upon returning home, telling stories of their adventures at sea. Since life at sea can be rather dull, all creatures - real, mythical, and in between - eventually became the centre of rather ghastly stories. Klabautermann A Klabautermann is a water kobold that assists sailors and fishermen on the Baltic and North Sea in their duties. It is a merry and diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an irrepressible musical talent. It is believed to rescue sailors washed overboard. The name comes from the Low German verb ""klabastern"" meaning ""rumble"""
"European pine marten The European pine marten (""Martes martes""), known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine, and weasel. Their bodies are up to in length, and their bushy tails can be . Males are slightly larger than females; typically, martens weigh around - . Their fur is usually light to dark brown and grows longer and silkier during the winter, while being short and coarse in"
"small, pipe-smoking humanlike figure wearing a yellow nightcap-style sailor's hat and a red or grey jacket. Other kobolds appear as animals. Folklorist D. L. Ashliman has reported kobolds appearing as wet cats and hens, and Arrowsmith and Moorse mention kobolds in the shape of bats, cats, roosters, snakes, and worms. Thorpe has recorded that the people of Altmark believed that kobolds appeared as black cats while walking the earth. The kobold Heinzelmann could appear as a black marten and a large snake. Most often, kobolds remain completely invisible. Although King Goldemar (or Goldmar), a famous kobold from Castle Hardenstein, had"
"are sometimes portrayed as being indifferent to human miners, so long as they are left alone. In these depictions, they are content to simply mine ore themselves, collect it, and haul it away by windlass. The ""Klabautermann"" (also spelt ""Klaboterman"" and ""Klabotermann"") is a creature from the beliefs of fishermen and sailors of Germany's north coast, the Netherlands, and the Baltic Sea, and may represent a third type of kobold or possibly a different spirit that has merged with kobold traditions. Belief in the Klabautermann dates to at least the 1770s. According to these traditions, Klabautermanns live on ships and"
"as sheep, horses, foxes, mouses, geese, storks, swans, dragons or toads. Some ""Feldgeister"" show mixed animal and human features. One example is the ""Katzenmann"" (""cat man"") who shares feline and human features. The ""Bockmann"" or ""Bockelmann"" (both ""buck man"") instead is a human-goat hybrid who steals children. He is also known as ""Bockkêrl"" (""buck guy"") or ""Bockemâ"" (""buck man""). The ""Roggenmuhme"" (""rye aunt"") is a female corn demon with fiery fingers. Her bosoms are filled with tar, and may end in tips of igneous iron. Her bosoms are also long, and as such must be thrown over her shoulders when"
"Anteater Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning ""worm tongue"") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with the sloths, they are within the order Pilosa. The name ""anteater"" is also colloquially applied to the unrelated aardvark, numbat, echidnas, pangolins and some members of the Oecobiidae. Extant species are the giant anteater ""Myrmecophaga tridactyla"", about long including the tail; the silky anteater ""Cyclopes didactylus"", about long; the southern tamandua or collared anteater ""Tamandua tetradactyla"", about long; and the northern"
"and quokkas; and the Phalangeriformes: possums, including the gliders such as the wrist-winged gliders. The koala and wombats are believed by many biologists to share a common ancestor and to have diverged only recently in the Cenozoic. Suborder Vombatiformes Vombatiformes The Vombatiformes are one of the three suborders of the large marsupial order Diprotodontia. Five of the seven known families within this suborder are extinct; only the families Phascolarctidae, with the koala, and Vombatidae, with three extant species of wombat, survive. Among the extinct families are the Diprotodontidae, which includes ""Diprotodon"", believed by many to be the inspiration for the"
"or more ""monsters,"" but these are not mythical creatures, rather being some type of ferocious predator. Monsters have included snakes, and adders (from ""Redwall"", ""Doomwyte"", and ""Triss""), large carnivorous fish such as pike, and sharks (from ""Marlfox"", ""The Bellmaker"", ""Triss"", ""Lord Brocktree"", and ""Mossflower""), a plesiosaur-type creature (from ""High Rhulain""), a wolverine (from ""Rakkety Tam""), a scorpion (from ""Mariel of Redwall"") and a giant sea serpent (from ""Salamandastron"" and ""High Rhulain"" though mentioned very very briefly in the latter), along with an eel (from ""Mossflower"", ""The Taggerung"", ""The Long Patrol"", ""Outcast of Redwall"", and ""The Sable Quean""), a giant lobster"
"diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an irrepressible musical talent. He also rescues sailors washed overboard. The name comes from the Low German verb ""klabastern"" meaning ""rumble"" or ""make a noise"". An etymology deriving the name from the verb ""kalfatern"" (""to caulk"") has also been suggested. A carved klabautermann image, of a small sailor dressed in yellow with a tobacco pipe and woollen sailor's cap, often carrying a caulking hammer, is attached to the mast as a symbol of good luck. However, despite the positive attributes, there is one omen associated with his presence: no member"
"six months. It began the tradition of using the words ""squeamish ossifrage"" in cryptanalytic challenges. Bearded vulture The bearded vulture (""Gypaetus barbatus""), also known as the Lämmergeier or ossifrage, is a bird of prey and the only member of the genus ""Gypaetus"". Traditionally considered an Old World vulture, it actually forms a minor lineage of Accipitridae together with the Egyptian vulture (""Neophron percnopterus""), its closest living relative. It is not much more closely related to the Old World vultures proper than to, for example, hawks, and differs from the former by its feathered neck. Although dissimilar, the Egyptian and bearded"
"martes""). Specific predators vary by geographic region. In Newfoundland, red foxes (""Vulpes vulpes"") were the most frequent predator, though coyote (""Canis latrans"") and other American marten were also responsible for some deaths. In deciduous forests in northeastern British Columbia, most predation was attributed to raptors. Of 18 American marten killed by predators in northeastern Oregon, 8 were killed by bobcats (""Lynx rufus""), 4 by raptors, 4 by other American marten, and 2 by coyotes. Throughout the distribution of American marten, other predators include the great horned owl (""Bubo virginianus""), bald eagle (""Haliaeetus leucocephalus""), golden eagle (""Aquila chrysaetos""), Canada lynx (""L."
"was made in 2012 for the name, and ""Mammuthus lamarmorai"" is currently the valid species name. The species name, ""lamarmorai"", honors to the Sardinian General and naturalist Alberto La Marmora (1789–1863), who had already in 1858 investigated the fossils of Funtana Morimenta. The origin of ""M. lamarmorai"" is still relatively unclear – the earliest finds date from the late portion of the Middle Pleistocene, as points their association with the dwarf deer ""Praemegaceros cazioti"", and are thus about 450,000 years old. A colonization of Sardinia through the steppe mammoth should therefore be carried out in the transition from the old"
"of European peoples upon one another. Similarly, subterranean kobolds may share their origins with creatures such as gnomes and dwarves and the aquatic Klabautermann with similar water spirits. The name of the element cobalt comes from the creature's name, because medieval miners blamed the sprite for the poisonous and troublesome nature of the typical arsenical ores of this metal (cobaltite and smaltite) which polluted other mined elements. The kobold's origins are obscure. Sources equate the domestic kobold with creatures such as the English boggart, hobgoblin and pixy, the Scottish brownie, and the Scandinavian nisse or tomte; while they align the"
"""schrat"", and ""walrider"". Many variations of the creature exist in surrounding European areas, such as the Druden and Schratteli, or Old Hag in English-speaking countries. In the period before about 1000, the Old High German word ""alp"" is attested only in a small number of glosses. It is defined by the ""Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch"" as a ""nature-god or nature-demon, equated with the Fauns of Classical mythology ... regarded as eerie, ferocious beings ... As the mare he messes around with women"". Accordingly, the German word ""Alpdruck"" (literally 'elf-oppression') means 'nightmare'. There is also evidence associating elves with illness, specifically epilepsy. In"
"have survived to the present. Kongamato The kongamato (""breaker of boats"") is a reported pterosaur-like creature said to have been seen by the people of and explorers in the Mwinilunga district's Jiundu swamps of Western Zambia, Angola and Congo. Suggested identities include a modern-day ""Rhamphorhynchus"", a misidentified bird (such as the very large and peculiar saddle-billed stork), or a giant bat. No film has ever been taken, nor have any bodies been examined, leaving all of the stories to rely on large wounds and eyewitness accounts. Frank Melland, in his 1923 book ""In Witch-bound Africa"", describes it as living along"
"Boggart Boggart is one of numerous related terms used in English folklore for either a household spirit or a malevolent ""genius loci"" inhabiting fields, marshes or other topographical features. Other names of this group include ""bug"", ""bugbear"", ""bogey"", ""bogun"", ""bogeyman"", ""bogle"", etc., presumably all derived from (or related to) Old English ""pūcel"", Irish púca and Welsh ""bwg"" with the same meaning (itself a probable loan from the English ""bug""). The household form causes mischief and things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame. The boggarts inhabiting marshes or holes in the ground are often attributed more serious"
"Kongamato The kongamato (""breaker of boats"") is a reported pterosaur-like creature said to have been seen by the people of and explorers in the Mwinilunga district's Jiundu swamps of Western Zambia, Angola and Congo. Suggested identities include a modern-day ""Rhamphorhynchus"", a misidentified bird (such as the very large and peculiar saddle-billed stork), or a giant bat. No film has ever been taken, nor have any bodies been examined, leaving all of the stories to rely on large wounds and eyewitness accounts. Frank Melland, in his 1923 book ""In Witch-bound Africa"", describes it as living along certain rivers, and very dangerous,"
"of many pathogens, such as rabies; and since they are highly mobile, social, and long-lived, they can readily spread disease. In many cultures, bats are popularly associated with darkness, malevolence, witchcraft, vampires, and death. An older English name for bats is flittermouse, which matches their name in other Germanic languages (for example German ""Fledermaus"" and Swedish ""fladdermus""), related to the fluttering of wings. Middle English had ""bakke"", most likely cognate with Old Swedish ""natbakka"" (""night-bat""), which may have undergone a shift from ""-k-"" to ""-t-"" (to Modern English ""bat"") influenced by Latin ""blatta"", ""moth, nocturnal insect"". The word ""bat"" was"
"Old Norse word ""fúll"" meaning foul, and ""már"" meaning gull, in reference to the smell of their stomach oil. The two fulmars are closely related seabirds occupying the same niche in different oceans. The northern fulmar (""Fulmarus glacialis"") or just fulmar lives in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, whereas the southern fulmar, (""Fulmarus glacialoides"") is, as its name implies, a bird of the Southern Ocean. These birds look superficially like gulls, but are unrelated, and are in fact petrels. The northern species is grey and white with a yellow bill, in length with a wingspan. The southern form is"
"""Cat Gossip"" that the Siamese cat (described in early breed standards as sable and dun in colour) was linked to the marten (described as sable and yellow in colour). Percheron's description changed the lop-eared cat from a cosetted pet fed on delicacies to an animal consumed as a delicacy and this, along with the erroneous use of the ""sumxu"" name, was also perpetuated by later authors. Jean Bungartz also described the Chinese lop-eared cat or hanging-ear cat, as a food animal and with much Lamarckian supposition, in his work ""Die Hauskatze, ihre Rassen und Varietäten"" (""Housecats, Their Races and Varieties"")"
"Groundhog The groundhog (""Marmota monax""), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. It was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The groundhog is also referred to as a chuck, wood-shock, groundpig, whistlepig, whistler, thickwood badger, Canada marmot, monax, moonack, weenusk, red monk and, among French Canadians in eastern Canada, siffleux. The name ""thickwood badger"" was given in the Northwest to distinguish the animal from the prairie badger. Monax (""Móonack"") is an Algonquian name of the woodchuck, which meant ""digger"" (cf. Lenape ""monachgeu"")."
"century, comes from the Dutch ""mallemok"", which means ""mal"" – foolish and ""mok"" – gull. Another etymology suggests that it comes from the German Mallemugge, a term used originally for midges or flies that whirled about lights. Mollymawks are a type of albatross that belong to the Diomedeidae family and come from the Procellariiformes order, along with shearwaters, fulmars, storm-petrels, and diving-petrels. They share certain identifying features. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns, although the nostrils are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariiformes are also unique in that they"