Mirror Image .........

........ starlings - (Sturnus vulgaris) - aka Common Starling aka European Starling.

More Speckles ....

There was a huge flock of starlings in the garden this morning greedily eating up the seed I had thrown out - I'd hoped to get some in flight but none were really good enough to post - when I downloaded the pictures I was very surprised to see this shot - it really IS two different starlings but looks so like a mirror image ...... don't think I could have got this shot by design - just pure luck - I am never one to look a gift horse in the mouth!!!!


(" Looking a gift horse in the mouth" - a strange saying that is thought to come about from St. Jerome, who referred to it as a common saying in his introductory remarks to the Epistle to the Ephesians in his translation of the New Testament:
"Equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur."
A rather mangled literal translation would go something like this: "A given horse's teeth are not inspected."

It is likely that English versions are translations of this original Latin; furthermore, the Latin form seems to explain the use of "given" (geuen) in the 1546 version.

From early modern English : "No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth." - John Heywood, 1546.

Horses' gums recede as they age making their teeth appear longer (hence the term, "long in the tooth" meaning old). Inspecting the teeth of a horse given as a gift was considered ungrateful. It would mean that recipient is trying to see if the horse is old (undesirable) or young (more desirable).


40/52 of my personal birdie challenge 2013



NIKON D5200 : f/5.6 : 1/250" : 300mm : ISO 400