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From: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (R C. Buchmann)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: birds and cartoons...
Message-ID: <1989Nov20.020803.29479@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 89 02:08:03 GMT
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (R C. Buchmann)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 27

Netbirders:

     I just heard a little story about the origin of a very famous cartoon
character, and I thought I'd pass it on tto you.  Yes, it does have
a lot to do with birds and birding.  The story begins with a man, who was 
mildly interested in birds--a "backyard birder."  One morning in spring, he 
heard a loud tapping on his drainpipe.  Looking out the window, he discovered
a Pileated Woodpecker, banging his head on the drainpipe to announce his
territory, and making a real racket in the process.  His first reaction was 
mild anger, and he started to go outside to shoo the bird away.  But then he
got an idea--why not make a cartoon out of this loony Pileated Woodpecker
who insisted on banging his head on a drainpipe at such a godawful hour
of the morning?  The man's name was Walter Lantz, and thus Woody Woodpecker
was born.

     On the same note, and a broader scale, one of the most famous cartoonists
of all time was not only an avid birder (with a life-list of ~ 1500 species)
but an amateur ornitologist as well.  He had a lot of fun with birds, and 
some of his cartoons have major characters who are birds.  He knew--and
appreciated--the avian world more than most, and his name was Walt Disney.
--
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R. Cody Buchmann                             ^.^  
   "Kehaar"                 

email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu       "Now I fly for you..." - Watership Down
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