Freaky Beaky

[Dick Smith]

What?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6506465.stm

[Cat]

Good heavens!

[Will]

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'large pointy tits' [;-)]

[Cat]

Will! Go and sit on the naughty step this instant! [:)]

[Will]

Sorry Cat, I shall consider myself admonished.

I was thinking in terms of the elderly lady back in the BBC's glory days of radio when all the announcers wore dinner jackets etc. She switched on her wireless set and as it slowly crackled into life, heard the words come out of the ether: "great tits like coconuts...". She immediately switched off and dashed off a letter of complaint. A couple of days later, the reply came back - "Madam, had you continued to listen, you would have learned that, also, blackbirds like seeds."

[Dick Smith]

On a serious note, Darwin based the first iteration of the Origin of Species on differences in the bills of birds, leading to natural selection. That is what we are seeing in action here, although I doubt that without human intervention Beaky would survive. From what I recall the keratin of whiich the beak is made is quite prone to mutation and change.

[Nicos]

If it is feather and beak disease as the article suggests, then isn't that a viral infection and highly contagious?

In the light of bird flu......[8-)]

Just a thought.

Also if it is a genetic mutation- isn't feeding it going to produce another generation of tits unable to feed themselves??

[Dick Smith]

Unlikely. But if it does the householder will be frying a lot of bread!