Query: "birds and bees"

[Wilson Gray]

Thanks for the info, Dave. FWIW, I did not ask my former girl friend
how she went about jacking off turkey cocks and she didn't tell, thank
God.. The fact that she was doing it at all was already too much
information.

-Wilson

On 2/16/06, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Query: "birds and bees"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Laurence Horn
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 4:57 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Query: "birds and bees"
>
> >>Uh, John, birds reproduce by fucking.
>
> >This is off topic, perhaps, but according to information provided
> >this week on another list I subscribe to, "Swans are the only birds
> >with penises!" (exclamation point in original).  I feel a tension
> >between the two claims above, and I'm not sure how to resolve it.
> >
> >LH
>
>
> Most birds do not have penises. Sperm is stored in a compartment in the male
> cloaca and passed to the female cloaca during copulation via a "cloacal
> kiss," less like fucking and more like a feathery tribadism.
>
> Ducks do have penises, as do ostriches, emus, rheas, and turkeys. I don't
> know if swans, like ducks, do, but if so they're not unique, but a member of
> small club among birds.
>
> At one time, all birds had penises, but most species lost them somewhere
> along the evolutionary path. A humbling thought for half the population.
>
> See http://pharyngula.org/index/science/comments/penis_evolution/ and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aves#Reproduction
>
>
>
> --Dave Wilton
>   dave at wilton.net
>
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