One of an ornithological series about passerine birds around the world, this particular bird finder, dedicated to thornbirds, says that the Phacellodomus  genus of thornbirds in the family of Furnariidae, and are found in woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands, often near water, in South America. Elsewhere in the world, thorn birds are known for their unique nesting habits that involve building nests on the branches of acacia trees using thorns. These birds inhabit arid regions across Africa, Australia, and Asia, & certainly do not self-immolate on thorny bushes to sing some wondrous swansong as they die of their injuries, according to some myth or other. 

Forever to remain

@courtenay Didn't know you were (secretly?) a St Kilda supporter, Wagga. 

  Who? Moi?  

In distant days long ago when my own family still lived in the St George area of Sydney, and I was just a high school girl, its local Rugby League club would sing a song, When the Saints come marching in, to cheer it on to win 13 Grand Finals in a row, and we'd recite a Shakespearean speech, something like "Once more dear friends, once more, Or we will close the breach with our [English? examination? No, Kogarah!] dead". That speech from Henry V ended with "Cry God for King Harry, England and....SAINT GEORRGE!!!" Nowadays the one-time Saints have become the Dragons.  

An account of the author's visit to a small English town where his great-uncle grew up; he is moved to see a memorial set up to the young men of the town who died in the Great War, with their names engraved, and the words, 'In our hearts they will forever remain'. 

The Big Six 

An old-fashioned English boarding school yarn, where there were the traditional four houses, to allow for team sports, but as sometimes happens, the Big Six prefects in the senior years, were also champions at everything from sports to the school dux, except for the School Captain, from another house, whose job was to keep the Big Six in order.

Moving on

A children's lift-the-flap book about the process of moving centered on one family who is moving to a new house.

The Dragon and the Raven

A children's fable about Why The Raven Is Black, based around a careless game played by a dragon and his friend the grey raven, resulting in the bird having his feathers scorched. 

Four Thousand Years Ago.