Large pied wagtail: The Madrasi chidiya!!

Large pied wagtail, the specie name Motacilla madaraspatensisis is derived from the Indian city of Madras, which is now known as Chennai
, so happened Edward Buckley, a Madras-based surgeon drew and described 22 birds, he sent his sketches to England and this material was the source for the description of the Indian Pied Wagtail. By classification, the Pied Wagtail belongs to the Passerine (or perching) family of birds, characterized by the feet being adapted for perching on trees or on the ground, rather than for grasping, wading or swimming

The name "pied" comes from the bird's black-and-white coloration and "wagtail" from the perpetual "wagging" of its tail. The reason for wagging the tail of wagtail species is not much understood (motacilla means moving tail). It has been suggested that it may flush up prey, or that it may signal submissiveness to other wagtails. Recent studies have suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance that may aid to deter potential predators. Large pied Wagtail resembles Magpie Robin a lot and few years back I used to confuse with it, the distinctive feature is its prominent white eyebrow (therefore also referred to as White browed Wagtail). This slender confiding bird is well adapted to urban habitat but prefers areas in vicinity to water; generally feeding on ground insects it could be seen darting around in gardens, probably the only resident wagtail in Indian plain. It’s a delight to watch this sprightly bird as it flits for insects, the black and white plumage gives it a neat formal look. Here an old Irish rhyme I came across in the net:

Wee Mister Wagtail, hopping on a rock,
Daddy says your pretty tail is like a Goblin's clock.
Wee Willie Wagtail, how I love to see,
Wee Willie Wagtail, wag his tail at me.
Wee Mister Wagtail, running by a pond,
Daddy says your pretty tail is like a Goblin's wand.

The painting here is from John Gould (1804-1881). Gould was an amazing man and was responsible for 3000odd exquisite hand colored lithographic plates of birds and animals. In his pursuit of new and different birds, John Gould traveled to Asia, Australia and the East Indies. John Gould produced in 1832, A Century of Birds from the Himalayan Mountains considered as pioneering step towards bird illustration. Later from 1850 till he died he produced magnificent six-volume Birds of Asia. His series of natural history plates is considered by many as the finest works of bird illustrations ever presented. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" was pivotal in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Throughout his professional life John Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species. The “Gould League”, founded in Australia in 1909, was named after him. This organization gave many Australians their first introduction to birds, along with more general environmental and ecological education.

How the Woodpecker Knows

How the Woodpecker Knows

How does he know where to dig his hole,
The woodpecker there on the elm tree hole?
How does he know what kind of a limb
To use for a drum, and to burrow in?
How does he find where the young grubs grow -
I'd like to know?

The woodpecker flew to a maple limb,
And drummed a tattoo that was fun for him,
"No breakfast here! It's too hard for that."
He said, as down on his tail he sat,
"Just listen to this: rrrr rat-rat-tat."

This is poem that seems to be quite popular and is there for ages, nobody knows who wrote it but fun to read, and yes it brings out the basic characteristic of woodpecker, have an ear for the furious rat-rat-rat by this spectacular looking busy bird. Woodpecker is one bird that is built for chiseling the tree. They have sharp tipped bill, special muscles that cushion the skull from the shock of constant hammering, extremely long sticky tongues with bristles that aid in grabbing and extracting insects deep within cervices of a tree, they also have tail that stiffens to support as it cling the tree to forage or probe beneath it. This usual posture of woodpecker is also helped by its strong broad, crooked claws and short feet that have four toes placed in pairs, two forward and two backward that help to grasp and walk the tree vertical defying gravity “…it was very wild, running on the trunks and limbs of trees with the agility peculiar to the family…” (Audubon 1837). Also a thickened nictating membrane protects eye and nostrils from flying debris as it digs. They are also known to communicate by drumming. The painting herein is of Pileated woodpecker by Audobun.

Woodpeckers are referred to as ‘core species’ because their presence is a fundamental requirement to the existence of a wide range of other species, cavity nesting birds are very much dependent on woodpecker holes (owls, hornbills, wrens, martins and so on).

Woodpeckers also help in controlling pests (like bugs, ants or termites) but in recent time copious use of pesticides has seriously imbalanced the ecosystem. The reason why organic farming is significant, such agro-ecological practices go a long way in sustainable development. So unlike reported in media (BBC may have their own reason) there is more to organic farming than taste or nutrients. There are about 200 hundreds species of woodpecker, forest clearing has also reduced many population and some face extinction. Ivory billed woodpecker is thought to be extinct.

Does this blogger have a problem with Hume’s pheasant?

In one of my blog I expressed displeasure with birds named after colonialists, but all were not same some of them were very much into birds and their contributions have been immense and any bird named after them is a matter of pride and cause to celebrate. I guess most of us have read about AO Hume, he was the founder of Indian National Congress- that played a very significant role in freedom movement as also in nation building of independent India. Incidentally the present union government is headed by INC under the president ship of Sonia Gandhi who was born in Italy (another woman of foreign origin who held the highest post in INC was venerable Annie Beasent, this blogger has visited Theosophical society in Chennai). What is not known about AO Hume is that he was an ardent ornithologist (some even gave him the title of father of ornithology in India, this blogger though would like that title for none but Salim Ali. Period).

Hume made many expeditions to collect birds both when he was on health leave and as and where his work took him. As the Commissioner of Inland Customs Hume was responsible for the control of 2,500 miles of coast from near Peshawar in the northwest to Cuttack on the Bay of Bengal. During his travels he made a number of notes on various bird species. His expedition to the Indus area was one of the largest. In 1873, he visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Lakshadeep Islands in 1875, and in 1881 he made his last ornithological expedition to Manipur. Hume started the quarterly journal Stray Feathers - A journal of ornithology for India and dependencies in 1872. Twelve volumes were produced, the last of which was in 1888. He used the journal to publish descriptions of his new discoveries, such as Hume's Owl, Hume's Wheatear and Hume's Whitethroat. He wrote extensively on his own observations as well as writing critical reviews of all the ornithological works of the time. Hume built up a network of ornithologists reporting from various parts of India. Hume co-authored with C H T Marshall Game Birds of India, Burma and Ceylon (1879-1881).This three-volume work was made using contributions and notes from a network of 200 or more correspondents. Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds (1883) was another major work by Hume (above para taken from net).

Hume kept a detailed writing on the birds, this massive collection of manuscript was unfortunately sold by a servant as waste paper!!. What a tragedy, this blogger understands the pain to even loose a paragraph of writing, it is wrenching. Understandably Hume started to loose interest and donated all his remaining collections to British museum. There are many birds named after Hume and his wife. Cheers to that Hume’s pheasant is actually Mrs. Hume’s pheasant; this bird incidentally is the state bird of Manipur and Mizoram.

Other Britishers who actively contributed to ornithology in the subcontinent during 18^th to early 20^th century include Andrew Leith Adams, Horace Alexander, E C S Stuart Baker, Valentine Ball, Henry Edwin Barnes, R S P Bates, R C Beavan’s , F N Betts, W T Blanford, Edward Blyth, W E Brooks, W. S. Millard (it was this man who was the secretary at BHNS when young Salim Ali came with yellow throated Swallow, the photo is of him), E A Butler, Douglas Dewar, Edward Hamilton Aitken (popularly known as EHA, he was the founding member of Bombay Natural History Society ), Frank Finn, Thomas B Fletcher, James Franklin, N F Frome, H H Godwin-Austen, John Gould, Brian Hodgson, C M Inglis, Capt. Surgeon T C Jerdon (the most authoritative book The Birds of India), N B Kinnear, Walter Norman Koelz, Frank Ludlow, C H T Marshall, G F L Marshall, John McClelland, Richard Meinertzhagen, James A Murray, E W Oates, Arthur Edward Osmaston, Bertram Beresford Osmaston, Sir Arthur Purves Phayre, Wardlaw Ramsay, Dr Sidney Dillon Ripley, B E Smythies, J K Stanford, Ferdinand Stoliczka, Colonel W H Sykes, Charles Swinhoe, Robert Swinhoe, C B Ticehurst, Col. Robert C Tytler , Hugh Whistler.

Ibis walks like an Egyptian !!

The picture here is of Black headed Ibis, one of the Ibis specie that is found quite abundantly without being common in South and South East Asia. Ibis is a long-legged wading bird found mostly in marshy wetlands inland and on the coast, where it feeds on various fish, water creatures, as well as on insects. They have long down curved bills, white plumage with black bald head, the neck and legs. The word ibis comes from Greek, originally borrowed from Ancient Egyptian hîb and also followed from the root. For ancient Egyptians ibis was sacred Ibis and so ibis referred to as Nile bird. The Egyptians say its white plumage symbolizes the light of the sun, and its black neck the shadow of the moon, its body a heart, and its legs a triangle. It was said to drink only the purest of water, and its feathers to scare or even kill the crocodile. No wonder the most significant god of ancient Egypt was ibis headed!!

Ibis-headed Egyptian God of learning: different civilizations had their own conception of God, interestingly Egyptians found Ibis headed god: Thoth as their important deity. Thoth was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. He was associated by the Egyptians with speech, literature, arts, learning. Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and alphabets (ie. hieroglyphs) themselves. Thoth was the 'One who Made Calculations Concerning the Heavens, the Stars and the Earth', the 'Reckoner of Times and of Seasons', the one who 'Measured out the Heavens and Planned the Earth'. He was 'He who Balances', the 'God of the Equilibrium' and 'Master of the Balance'. 'The Lord of the Divine Body', 'Scribe of the Company of the Gods', the 'Voice of Ra', the 'Author of Every Work on Every Branch of Knowledge, Both Human and Divine', he who understood 'all that is hidden under the heavenly vault'. Thoth was not just a scribe and friend to the gods, but central to order. He was 'He who Reckons the Heavens, the Counter of the Stars and the Measurer of the Earth'. Phew!!

An incident in Kenzeburo Oe’s life: continuing with my main blog on Kenzeburo Oe (www.depalan.blogspot.com) it need be noted that Oe’s highly regarded work is semi autobiographical “A Personal matter”. Incredibly the protagonist is named ‘Bird’. Birds have an important reference point in his life there is a poignant incident that he quotes:

Until my son was four or five years old, he didn't do anything to communicate with us. We thought that he cannot have any sense of the family. So he looked very, very isolated -- a pebble in the grass. But one day, he was interested in the voice of a bird from the radio. So I bought disks of the wild birds of Japan. I made a tape of fifty specimens of birds -- bird calls. There are the bird calls and a very flat voice, a woman announcer, says the names of the birds. "Tada-dada," then: "Nightingale." "Tada-da." "Sparrow." "This is nightingale; this is sparrow." We continued to listen to that tape for three years. During those three years, when we played the birds' songs, my son became very quiet. So it was needed to make him quiet. My wife must do her work, and I must do my work. So with the bird voices we three lived on.

In the summer when he was six years old, I went to our mountain house, and while my wife was cleaning our small house, I was in the small forest with my son on my shoulders. Nearby there is a small lake. A bird sang, [one of a pair]. Suddenly a clear, flat voice said, "It is a water rail." Then I shook. Utter silence in the forest. We were silent for five minutes and I prayed for something, there on my head. I prayed, "Please, the next voice of that bird and please next the remarks of my son, if that was not my phantom or dream." Then after five minutes, the wife of that bird sang. Then my son said "It's a water rail." Then I returned to my house with my son and talked to my wife.

For a long time, we waited for another voice, but there was not any voice during the night. We didn't sleep. But in the early morning, a small sparrow came to a small tree in front of our window. He made a small sound, and my son said, "It's a sparrow." Then everything began, and we played the sound of a bird, and my son would answer. We made many recordings of birds, even the birds of the U.S.A. and Europe. My son answered very quietly and very correctly if he listened to the name of a bird two or three times. We began to communicate by the word.

"Pooh-chan," -- my son was called Pooh-chan, from Winnie the Pooh -- "what is the bird?" [He would answer after I played the tape.] "Sparrow." "Pooh-chan, what do you want to listen to?" He thinks, [and says,] "Water rail." "Nightingale." Then I would play it.

Then, we began to communicate…”

The colorful Lady Amherst

First thing first female Lady Amherst are quite dull looking, it is the male that is one of the spectacular flightless pheasant bird (ideally Lord Amherst!!). It is riot of colors -black and silver head, a long grey tail, and striking plumage of yellow, white, and metallic blue, red, and green- quite an overwhelming bird with what looks like 'lawyer's wig'. This blogger took the pic of the bird at an aviary in Mysore. This is not only my first visit to any aviary (it is an amazing place to be in) and yes I have never seen this bird before. Aviaries are excellent conceptions wherein the birds have much freedom and also easy to observe. This blog is meant for birds in wild but I include Lady Amherst here since I wouldn’t really call aviary less wild and yes this pheasant bird adapts well in these environment (I found it quite active around the shrubs). All this factors are enough for this blog.

Like me most readers might be intrigued by the name of the bird. Well it so happened that wife of William Pitt Amherst, Governor General of Bengal (not India as some website refers) was responsible for sending the first birds to London in the early 1800s. And so it came to be referred to as lady Amherst bird!!. Those were heady days of imperialism wherein world was waiting to be discovered and named by Europeans (geez my forefathers may never have been discovered. Terrible!!). Anyway I am least happy with these names I would rather prefer the name ‘natives’ use and not some colonialist.

This bird’s status is uncommon but not endangered; they originally belong to the thick forest of south China and north Burma, well adapted to high altitude. Lady Amherst though seems to be on the verge of extinction in Britain as reported in a daily a year back. Excerpts from the newspaper: “Lady Amherst's will become the first bird species since the great auk to be lost from the British countryside. Its gradual demise over the past decade is thought to be related to a steadily expanding fox population. Another factor may be culling by gamekeepers who believe they endanger fox hunts because they run rather than fly”. Ah the great tradition of hunting of uncivilized brits.

Incidentally one of my all time favorite poet Emily Dickenson was born in Amherst (Massachuset, US). And yes she wrote this incredible poem ‘A bird came down the walk’. This poem is any birdwatchers delight, probably the best ever.

A bird came down the walk

He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

“Then he drank a dew. From a convenient grass. Hopped sidewise to the wall. To let a beetle pass. He glanced with rapid eyes”. This is typical behavior of bird- could be a sparrow or a magpie. The best is yet to come !!. The bird rejects the food offered and “unrolled his feathers. And rowed him softer home. Than oars divide the ocean”. These amazing lines one can associate with corvids (in particular crows) the languid flying like an oar dividing the sea ‘splashless as they swim’. You have to be an amazingly observant to write these lines. Even from birdwatchers point of view it is an absolute delight to read. The reason why Emily Dickenson was one of the best ever, it is meditative just like a haiku.

The painting herein is by Theo van Rysselberg (1862-1926), a Belgian painter who was pivotal in neo-impressionist movement in Europe at the turn of the century. He was one of the pioneer in pointillism (painting with dots). The stamp is from china.

Black crowned Night Heron: the twilight hunter

It is a very rare to see night heron hunting in the daylight, they generally laze around the day and active at dusk through the night, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this bird hunched (its typical posture), alternatively stretching out its neck and concentrating on its prey on a bright morning at lal bagh lake (Bangalore). I had postponed photographing black-crowned night heron for later date when I get a better lens since daytime it rests on faraway branches and canopies (the latest is I am having some serious near misses at turf club, one of these days I am going to hit the money pot, then for lens, laptop!!) next to marshes making it difficult to photograph. Black-crowned night-heron has a scientific name Nycticorax nycticorax, which literally means ‘night raven’ in Greek. Night obviously for its nocturnal feeding habits, the second half of the name has a corvid connection not in relation but the vocal similarity to guttural calls of raven. Adult black-crowned night-herons have black caps and back therefore the name.Black-crowned night-heron are unlike any herons as they have short neck and legs, this stocky bird has long thick black bill. Hunting technique is standing still (let me add unnaturally still) at water edge to ambush prey. They are also known to employs another hunting technique called ‘bill vibrating’, whereby it opens and closes its bill rapidly in water and hunts upon any small creature attracted to the disturbance. These birds are solitary hunters but gregarious in their nesting colonies shared by other birds however they have the tendency to steal eggs and young hatchlings during breeding season, the reason why black-crowned night-heron is disliked by other species of herons. They do their best to discourage this heron from nesting in their colonies. The flight of the Night Heron is steady, slow and protracted.

White-eared Night Heron a Chinese bird listed on the IUCN Red List as one of the world’s most endangered species. The white-ear even made the list of the Fifty Rarest Birds of the World (the painting is from Audobon collection and stamp from Sri Lanka).

I was going through the Net and found that Judith Wright had written a poem "Night Herons"; despite many hours of scrounging through the net I just couldn’t locate it. I hope someone would download it at the earliest. Judith Wright has written many poems on birds and wildlife. In her poem “Birds” (1953) she writes “all are what bird is and do not reach beyond the bird” she ends the poem with the line “Be simple to myself as the bird is to the bird.”

Judith Wright was a prolific Australian poet, critic, and short-story writer, an uncompromising environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. In her essay 'The Writer and the Crisis', she quotes the following from poet Francis Ponge: You have but to fix your attention on the first object to hand; you will see immediately that no-one has ever examined it, and that the most elementary things about it remain to be said ... I propose ... the opening of trap-doors in the inner self ... an invasion of qualities ... Thus the best path to take is to consider all things as unknown...and begin again from the beginning.

Writes Wright in mid-1950s: "The two threads of my life, the love of the land itself and the deep unease over the fate of its original people, were beginning to twine together, and the rest of my life would be influenced by that connection”. These lines from “Australia 1970”

I praise the scoring drought, the flying dust
the drying creek, the furious animal,
that they oppose us still;
that we are ruined by the thing we kill.
 
"In The Two Faces" (1955) she took Hiroshima as an example of man's power to destroy even the cycles of nature. These lines from “Notes at Edge”…

Rhyme, my old cymbal, I don't clash you as often, or trust your old promises music and unison. I used to love Keats, Blake; now I try haiku for its honed brevities, its inclusive silences.

Last few days I have been reading and re-reading some of the poems and essay she wrote (as also blogs of her admirers), I think she was incredible and so wrote this poem for her endearing memory.

Role play

Uncertain discordant echoes, chaotic new path,

languid past diminishing like shadows in flickering candles.

Conceded space encroached by strangers

who speak idiom

I find difficult to understand.

These days every thought seems to be slipping

into abyss so deep

I cannot retrieve.

Is it loss of words, the language?

An old woman from past once said

alphabets don’t construct words

it is the thoughts

(a critique on western model of development: it is not what you build but thoughts behind the building)

White-breasted waterhens can walk on water !!

White-breasted waterhens are found across south Asia from India and Sri Lanka to south China and Indonesia. They have dark upperparts, white face and underparts, with yellow bill, thin long legs with very long toes. It moves tail feathers up and down. Stepping tenderly from one lotus leaf to another as it forages for food is a sight to watch, seems as if it is walking on water. Its body is adapted for this: long toes helps in distributing its already light frame.

A very common bird found wherever water bodies have thick vegetation cover. Being highly territorial it is a vocal and quarrelsome bird. Their constantly flicking tails and inquisitive suspicious nature make them very interesting birds to observe; highly vigilant they are easily alarmed and run into undergrowth. They nest in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation. White-breasted waterhens are often seen out in the open as it feeds on insects, mollusca, small fishes, grain. They have adapted well to human activity and are not endangered. In north India they are called Dawak or Dahak (stamp hereby from Australia).

In this context I thought it would be pertinent to discuss about some great guys from Poland: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885 - 1939) also known as "Witkacy", wrote the play The Waterhen (the reason why he finds himself in this blog!!). When Soviet troops invaded Poland he killed himself as a protest. Witkacy tried to divest the theatre of his time of the bothersome naturalism that he felt was squelching its true nature. He believed in connecting audiences with a communal and individual "metaphysical feeling", that all the great works of art of the past were based upon this principle but that modern creators, as a result of their quest for the perfect reproduction of reality, had lost sight of it. He tried to bring in the pure form that Stanislavsky influenced theatre of the early 20th Century had been trying to keep out.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) an internationally renowned Polish theatre personality was inspired by Witkacy and stage produced many of his plays including The Waterhen. Kantor was known for experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors. His most renowned work was Dead Class (Andrzej Wajda a renowned Polish director made a movie on it). Czesław Miłosz framed his argument in The Captive Mind around a discussion of Witkiewicz's novel, Insatiability.

The Captive Mind has been described as one of the finest studies of the behavior of intellectuals under a repressive regime. Miłosz observed that those who became dissidents were not necessarily those with the strongest minds, but rather those with the weakest stomachs; the mind can rationalize anything, he said, but the stomach can take only so much. (I like that logic!!!!). One of the basic ideas put forward in Czeslaw Milosz's extraordinary book is that even the best-informed Westerners in reality know nothing about what goes on behind the Iron Curtain. They are fundamentally ignorant, not because of lack of factual data but due to failure of imagination. Milosz (who also happened to be Nobel laureate in literature-1980) writes in “My Intention,” the opening essay of To Begin Where I Am “I have written on various subjects, and not, for the most part, as I would have wished. Nor will I realize my long-standing intention this time. But I am always aware that what I want is impossible to achieve. I would need the ability to communicate my full amazement at “being here” in one unattainable sentence which would simultaneously transmit the smell and texture of my skin, everything stored in my memory, and all I now assent to, dissent from.”

These lines from the poem Child of Europe:

The laughter born of the love of truth

Is now the laughter of the enemies of the people.

Gone is the age of satire. We no longer need mock.

The sensible monarch with false courtly phrases.

Stern as befits the servants of a cause,

We will permit ourselves sycophantic humor.

Tight-lipped, guided by reasons only

Cautiously let us step into the era of the unchained fire.

Darter: the hug me bird

Darters are large sized slender bird that can be found sitting next to water body with its wing spread as if to hug someone. In reality these birds like their closer cousins cormorants don’t produce oil that water proof their feathers and so has to dry their wings constantly, so much so darters found in America migrate to get bright sun. The reason for lack of waterproof feathers is that like most birds they are light and have to increase their weight, waterlogged feathers allows it to dive easily and helps faster underwater movement. However, once they emerge from the water, they need to dry themselves. They also squeeze their feathers through their bill to remove excess water and repel water with oil from their enlarged preen gland at the base of the tail. It has great difficulty getting off the water if it attempts to fly while its wings are wet and takes off by flapping vigorously. Darters are widespread without being common. They inhabit either fresh or brackish water and can be found in lakes, rivers, marshes, swamps, estuaries, bays, lagoons and mangrove swamps. It prefers tree trunks, branches, stumps or posts fringing the water, for resting and drying its wings.

Darters got their name as they use long (about twice the length of the head) sharply pointed bill to spear or thrust prey when they dive, the fish is pierced from underneath, brought to the surface where it is flicked into the air and then swallowed head first. Smaller items are eaten underwater and large items carried to a convenient perch and then swallowed. Darters are also known to spread their wings and tail underwater to lure fish into the shade underneath, before spearing them. They are also referred to as snake bird as they have snakelike head and a very long curved neck, and often swims with only the neck above water, with side to side movement like a snake ready to strike. They have short webbed feet making them excellent swimmers, submerging without even a ripple (10 on 10 effort in Olympics!!) their eyes are set in the beaks for efficient underwater hunting. While its gait is clumsy on land, it can soar gracefully to great heights on thermals, soaring on motionless wings, it makes cross-shaped silhouette when flying giving an impression of a glider.

These birds belong to the family Anhingidae. In south Asia the commonly found darter is refered to as Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster). There are four living species. The word "anhinga" comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. The stamp posted herein is from Liberia (President of liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first elected female head of state), the painting of darter is from Audubon collection.

I came across these lines by Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world,
but when you're finished,
you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird...
So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing - that's what counts.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

How precise!!. Feynman was an American theoretical physicist who was widely regarded as the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field in the post-World War II era. He was one of the celebrated and revered scientists of modern times, he was multifaceted and had interest in many fields. Feynman remade quantum electrodynamics—the theory of the interaction between light and matter. The problem-solving tools that he invented—including pictorial representations of particle interactions known as Feynman diagrams—permeated many areas of theoretical Physics in the second half of the 20th century. Feynman invented a theory of “partons,” or hypothetical hard particles inside the nucleus of the atom, that helped lead to the modern understanding of quarks.

In his memoir Feynman mentions the reason for being in the Manhattan project. He says he felt the possibility of Nazi Germany developing the bomb before the Allies was a compelling reason to help with its development for the U.S. However, he goes on to say that it was an error on his part not to reconsider the situation when Germany was defeated. Feynman also talks about his worries in the atomic bomb age, feeling for some considerable time that there was a high risk that the bomb would be used again soon so that it was pointless to build for the future. Later he describes this period as a 'depression'. (all inputs taken from Net).