Monday, December 9, 2019

Ornithology, not ecclesiology - thank heaven!


A news headline made me sit up in sudden concern last week:


Cardinal with rare abnormality
discovered in central Texas


However, I needn't have worried.  It didn't refer to yet another sex scandal in the Catholic Church!

According to the Inland Bird Banding Association, the bird shows apparent bilateral gynandromorphism, a rare abnormality that causes it to have female plumage on one side of its body, and male on the other.



Phew . . . (wipes brow to remove beads of sweat) . . . a bird, rather than an ecclesiastical rank, and feathers, not vestments.  What a relief, considering my article last week!




Peter

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