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Sarasota News Leader March 29, 2013 January through April. The April animal depiction is of the Fisherking. This bird was sacred to the Manicheans as its arrival in April signified the end of winter and the beginning of spring, much like our Capistrano swallows. But it also fit into the Manichean gnostic elaborate cosmology beliefs describing a material world of evil, i.e., darkness (the Fisherking's egg) and light (the Fisherking). Page 85 about his photo, other than the fact that it is incredibly difficult to get a photo of this shy bird, is that she (yes, this bird species displays sexual dimorphism) is perched on a twig, and when you compare her bifurcated, bumpy "twig" beak to her rather smooth perch twig, you will appreciate her highly specialized olfactory senses. One nostril is for smelling out the sand flea larvae and the other for mosquito larvae. It is unbelievable! This valuable piece of historical art was looted from the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas BACK TO THE EGG during the Russo-China War, and it now In spring, during the Sahel's rainy season, hangs in the Dyen Durakov Muzey in Mos- the female Fisherking abandons her mate cow (Russia, not Texas!) for a period of two months and migrates to Again, thanks to Rick Greenspun, I am able the Turpan Oasis, an area edging the Takto show readers a photo of a female Fisherk- lamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Auing, which was taken during his last birding tonomous Region in the People's Republic expedition to Xianduu. The really cool thing of China. There, she lovingly and carefully This egg is on display in the Yúrén jié Museum in Beijing. Photo courtesy APRF Wire Services