This is an archive of past discussions with User:Shyamal. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Getting images from the Internet Archive
to Wikimedia Commons. Might you know the best way to do it? (I have John Gould's works in mind. I tried to get some images from the Zoology of the HMS Beagle, but gave up with handling the massive PDF files.) —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 21:54, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
The fastest way I have found is to use the read online option move to the single page option -> move to the page of interest -> change the width of page display to 100% and then right click on the page and save as jpg (it defaults to a PHP but actually is a JPG image) Shyamal (talk) 01:45, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Hmm, for some reason this doesn't work on my computer: I can't make right clicks. I did try downloading using the print page function, but this didn't work either. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 21:56, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Here's another thing Internet Archive-related: I think I'd like to add some public domain ornithology-related books from the Internet Archive to Wikisource. Any suggestions? (Especially, those that are still used as refs, or which have usable text for articles). One that I may begin with is Rothschild's Extinct Birds. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 23:16, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Never actually used Wikisource, but I presume you should be able to use the OCRed text and proof it and then upload it on wikisource. This book seems to have some nice plates that could be of use. Shyamal (talk) 08:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
As for those plates, I won't be able to add them (see above), and they are mostly already uploaded to Wikimedia commons at somewhat lower resolutions than what is at the Internet Archive. As for the suggestions, I meant: "any books that ought to be uploaded?" —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 19:59, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Vetting needed of Lepidoptera morphology
Hi Shyamal,
May I request you to please vet Lepidoptera morphology with the purpose of identifying stuff which needs deletion (not morphology but ecology or something else) and what section is not well represented and needs development?
Here is a listing of all the sparrow illustrations needed, so you can pick and choose:
Desert Sparrow: already discussed. Images of all 3 species would be good, since they are each distinct, and may get split.
Arabian Golden Sparrow and Chestnut Sparrow: For the general look of the birds of this group, see Sudan Golden Sparrow, which is intermediate between the others. The current images are good enough, but I'm not really satisfied with using them for the taxobox. Any suggestions? For the Chestnut Sparrow, see: [1] and [2]. Arabian Golden: [3] and [4]. You can see there isn't that much for these.
Snowmanradio has found an image for Chestnut Sparrow, which looks nearly ready for GA review. Is the image of the saharae Desert Sparrow ready for inclusion yet? Why are there now two birds? —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 16:43, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Have added a new illustration. My knowledge of the species and sources are too limited, so will leave it to you to decide if it is good enough for use. Shyamal (talk) 04:43, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Oh yes for sure the bird images are good enough. The range does need some corrections, though: what was the source you used? It will be impossible to get an absolutely correct map, since so little is known of this species's distribution. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 14:47, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Just some liberal guesswork based on the Kirwan paper. I was thinking a caption like "rough distribution range" would solve the problem. Let me know what changes are needed or alternatively feel free to tweak the boundaries - Inkscape is free for download on www.inkscape.org Shyamal (talk) 14:50, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Can you provide me with a link to the exact Inkscape file to download? (I have a Mac computer). I'm not sure I'll be able to do this. As for sources for the difference between the two House Sparrow species groups, see Birds of Kazakhstan's Indian Sparrow and House Sparrow pages. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 17:05, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
I tried fooling with the Desert Sparrow pic, but I couldn't figure it out. I think the map of the Desert Sparrow's range in Summers-Smith 88 is insufficient anyhow, so I've asked Sabine's Sunbird, who has the HBW vol. 14, to make a map. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 21:59, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. http://www.boldsystems.org - very interesting site, seems like the day is not far when I will take a handheld DNA scanner- feed some bird dropping, upload the sequence and presto I find the exact population that the bird belongs too ! Shyamal (talk) 16:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Do you know how to make distribution maps with GIMP, or know another Wikipedian who does? If so, can you add directions to Wikipedia:Distribution maps? I don't have Photoshop, nor do a lot of other Wikipedians, so this would be a lot of help. This would probably increase the number of distribution maps on Wikipedia somewhat—I, for one, will try to make hundreds, if I can find out how. Thanks, —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 00:35, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
I am not too good with raster based drawing but in more basic painting software the main method would be to use the "bucket fill" method but it requires that you have an edge to contain the colour. It is a lot easier with Inkscape where I take one of the blank SVG maps on Commons and draw an area on top of it even if it is really rough and then use the intersection tool - this gives me a copy of the area of interest - I copy this into clipboard- Undo the intersection - paste-in-place what I have in the clipboard and change the colours. Shyamal (talk) 01:41, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
article on F.W. Champion
Hi there Shyamal,
am happy that there is someone out there who is interested in F.W. Champion. Wanted to upload a few of his stunning photos, but alas, there is this copyright issue; can't ask anyone for permission.
Regards from BhagyaMani —Preceding unsigned comment added by BhagyaMani (talk • contribs) 14:41, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
This article is going to be my next sparrow DYK when I finish up a draft in my user space today or tomorrow. Might you be able to improve it then? It is found in the subcontinent (the Himalyas; it is more commonly called the Cinnamon Sparrow in South Asia) so you may be able to dig up some literature on the species that I don't know of or have access to. Thanks, —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 17:20, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
Forgot to ask: do you know what the scientific name of the kingoor shrub is? The Russet Sparrow eats it, but I can't find out a thing about it. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 17:22, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
Perreau,GA (1910) Change of plumage of the Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow (Passer cinnamomeus). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 19(4):986-988.
Stresemann,E (1939) Zwei neue Rassen aus Sd-Tibet und Nord-Sikkim. Ornith. Monatsber. 47:176-179.
Berberis probably B. aculeata - Central Himalayas
Regarding Kingoor do you have the original author attribution for that information or geographic location ? No immediate answer I am afraid. Shyamal (talk) 02:19, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
Ah got Kingoor it is more often spelt as Kingore apparently - Berberis spp. Seems to be a generic term and could include aristata or asiatica or other species. Shyamal (talk) 02:23, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I'll look through the sources later. Are the two refs at the bottom accessible online? I might not be able to get them, and I don't claim to really know German. As for the kingore, Summers-Smith just said he saw them eating it during his visit to Mussoorie and was told it is a common habit of the species, so I've added it with the parenthesis "certain Berberis spp." —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 18:39, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
Taking a little look through the Internet Archive sources, I've found little that is not in Summers-Smith—except information on the eggs, and that is quite good since Summers-Smith made quite a point of not including information on eggs. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 19:14, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. In regards to Ornithologiche Monatberichte, I can see reference print copies, but it is a bit of trouble and I know little German. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 17:56, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
I don't think that would work well. Please add anything from there to the article, though. Can you check the Ripley Guide to see if it has more info on the Russet Sparrow's voice than my sources? —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 01:14, 29 January 2010 (UTC)
Dear Sir, I note that your edit to Great Trigonometric Survey added an apparently nonsensical statement, "From Tellicherry, Cannanore and Mount Delly and triangulated with the top of Tadiandamol." I apologize for bringing this up over a year after your edit, but could you please untangle that sentence? Cstaffa (talk) 20:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
Too late. Sorry, was out of Internet range. I am not sure one can find a published biography of him that can be cited. Shyamal (talk) 10:08, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
WikiProject Mammals Notice Board
In line with the recent upgrades to WikiProject Mammals a bulletin board has been created to keep all members up to date with the Project, consider it similiar to the Wikipedia Signpost however focused on WikiProject Mammals. I would ask that you add this page to your watchlist in order to get the latest information about WikiProject Mammals. Kind Regards
Hey mate I was wondering if you could rustle up one of your bird images for a group lacking any images? The group in question is the Peltops, a genus from New Guinea. There are some images of the species on the web - this one is a good sideways image of the lowland species. Sabine's Sunbirdtalk19:04, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
Sorry to pester you further, but can you check the Ripley guide and suchlike to see if they have anything to say about the Russet Sparrow not already in the article: they probably will on voice. The sources you provided were quite useful (not only the ones I marked as such earlier, but also the Yangtze one), and I think I might try, later, to bring Russet Sparrow to FA grade. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 20:04, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
1) Ecologically Sensitive Areas/Ecologically Fragile Areas (India) & 2) Buffer zones (India)
Hi Shyamal
When u get time, can u develop above articles or write ups regarding India to include in the list of protected areas and elsewhere. Also see [6], [7], [8], [9]
Too much on my table I am afraid, but I am sure you can find hundreds of conservationists who will be interested to help on the various egroups. Shyamal (talk) 02:06, 21 February 2010 (UTC)
In a lot of articles relating to Richard Meinertzhagen, you've changed mentions of Theresa Clay which stated her to be Meinertzhagen's cousin or niece. However, according to Garfield's The Meinertzhagen Mystery, Clay actually was Meinertzhagen's second cousin once-removed—nearly a niece. Do you think Clay merits her own article? How do you think this would go down notability-wise? —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 21:19, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
I have not seen enough of her bird-louse research to say much about her academic notability. The works are not as well known as say those of the contemporary Miriam Rothschild. Notability wise, might stand firmly if there are enough published obituaries/biographical sources to cite. I do not recollect removing material from the article, my source of information was Salim Ali's autobiography but it seemed to be at odds with the rest of the text and so I may have removed it but do feel free to revert any changes that I may have made there. Shyamal (talk) 02:07, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
I'm not so interested in creating an article on Clay—just something to do some time. I have lots of other articles to create, such as 56 of these 57 species. Do you know anybody I could ask on notability matters—I'd like to know if a number of other people are notable. By the way, it is quite likely that Clay's research was as fraudulent as Meinertzhagen's, says Garfield. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 19:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Notability (people) is the guiding document and as can be seen, notability is quite subjective. In general however, well sourced biographies of non-living people, written without any specific slant have a better chance when it comes to notability debates. I think Theresa Clay as a mallophaga "expert" (if that is questioned, it often only adds to notability!) is notable enough and there are enough third party sources making this clear. If I find some time I will put up a stub. Shyamal (talk) 01:43, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
The notability guideline is not very helpful for me with Edward Nicolls, a General of the Royal Marines and knight (I wonder if these last things are enough to establish notability). The main guideline is "has been the subject of published secondary source material which is reliable, intellectually independent, and independent of the subject", the "has been a subject" part being dubious. I can find no secondary sources which mention him for more than two pages.
As for Theresa Clay, I'll see about working on it some time. An article on her would make a good DYK, I expect, an extra incentive for me. I think I'll request Garfield's book from my library today. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 01:54, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
Can you suggest a good source for a complete overview of the House Sparrow's eggs? By the way, that Sir Edward Nicolls turns out to be much more notable and interesting than I thought—but still hard to research: I have his month of death, but don't know anything about him before he was a captain fighting in Denmark; when I finish his article I'll start working on Theresa Clay in a sandbox. —innotata21:49, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
I guess egg colouration and size must be covered in the older oology works. Wonder if there is anything on long term climatic change, environmental chemicals, shell composition or other matters. Not sure of any references off-hand but will keep an eye out for them. There may be some useful pointers in the documents below if they are not already in a Summers-Smith work. Shyamal (talk) 02:03, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. The older oology works are what I'm looking for, as Anderson covers all the "hotter" stuff well. I've already seen the two papers you've pointed out, but I didn't know Vincent's thesis had much to say about eggs. As for Nicolls, the image presumably comes from a book I've been referring to, Ascension. The author says decipts an image in a Marines mess hall in Plymouth, and I think it comes from a privately published book about the Marines from the 1930s. I didn't know anything about him fighting Napoleon: the earliest mention I can find of him is this. I think he became famous for fighting slave traders off the coast of Africa in the 1830s. —innotata15:29, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Ornithologists sure hated the House Sparrow a hundred years ago. At least Alfred Newton merely had nothing to say about it. —innotata16:28, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
Do you think you could add some images of House Sparrow eggs to Wikimedia Commons? Either there aren't any, or they are not categorised as Passer domesticus. —innotata18:27, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
I will ask around for a modern photograph from real-life. I think the old plates seem rather poor quality. Shyamal (talk) 01:53, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
By the way, do you think you could create an image of the Afghan Snowfinch some time? Somebody's just added an image which is so inaccurate I think I'll to just remove it. —innotata15:07, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
Would you appreciate it if I e-mailed you some images of sparrows from The Sparrows and Finches and Sparrows? I think the Arabian Golden Sparrow is the sort of bird that we won't be able to find an image for, and the sort you can create an image for (no complex patterns). And Robert Gillmor's illustrations are spectacular. —innotata22:51, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
Here is a draft illustration of a male Afghan File:PyrgilaudaTheresaeM.svg based on the illustration in Rasmussen and Anderton (2005). Send me the pictures but be prepared to hang on for a while, may have some time and energy on weekends only. Shyamal (talk) 04:25, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
Added a sparrow egg image. Gillmor's works have captivated me too. I will never forget the woodcuts that accompany David Lack's Enjoying Ornithology. I think the woodcut technique is exceptional and they are sometimes almost magical in their ability to evoke colour from black and white. Shyamal (talk) 11:40, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I was going to email you throught emailuser to ask what your e-mail address is (I can e-mail others, but I've currently got Wikipedia e-mails to me disabled). Do you have Finches and Sparrows, or should I send you copies of this also? —innotata14:09, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
Received the second mail as well. The picture seems to have been based on nivalis. I am not sure if Commons has a policy for deletion on the grounds of inaccuracy. Would be best to just leave it unused and perhaps make a comment in the image description or on the talk page. I have tried to make some changes to the Afghan Snowfinch - I am surprised by the differences in the illustrations particularly of the female. Rasmussen's description says the facial pattern not well marked but the illustration shows no trace of the mask. Have essentially made a compromise illustration of the two available sources. Wish there were photographs to see. Have also updated the desert sparrow range map. Shyamal (talk) 02:54, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. As for the supposed Afghan Snowfinch image, I've recategorised it as a nivalis. The differences between Rassmussen's image and Clements's are indeed surprising. Of course, it is unrealistic to expect photographs: I was just reading in The Economist about the part of Afghanistan where the bird is found. It is now completely inaccessible, due to snow. Clement also has a black-and-white drawing of the bird from above: do you want me to send you that? Even though our knowledge of the Arabian Golden Sparrow is even more heavily derived from Meinertzhagen, a very few photographs of it exist. A Google Images search under the English vernacular name, for instance, turns up two images. It is also highly similar to the Chestnut Sparrow and Sudan Golden Sparrow. Most of those other sparrows that need images also have similar species. —innotata17:15, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
Most of the files look quite good, though the Sudan Golden Sparrow one looks strange to me (have you seen the rather poor photographs?) If you think the Afghan Snowfinch looks like a snowfinch and represents the two books well, then I think it should be used: it is unlikely we will ever get any other sort of image, of any quality. —innotata16:17, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Have reduced the neck on the Afghan and moved it to commons File:PyrgilaudaTheresae.svg and have changed the posture of the Sudan Golden Sparrow. (Purge browser cache to avoid seeing the old image) I will leave their use to your discretion. Shyamal (talk) 16:28, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
I think they all look mostly fine, except the Sudan Golden Sparrow—but I can't place what is wrong with that one. You don't need to delete it; I'll just use the photographs instead in the article. I'm surprised at the quality of your Sind Jungle Sparrow—I don't think any of your other streaked birds are so good. It is good to remember that it is a tiny bird. By the way, can you delete User:Innotata/monobook.js and User:Innotata/monobook.css, as I've started using the "Vector" skin. —innotata20:08, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
Have deleted your css and js files, not sure if blanking/deletion is really needed but can be undone if you run into troubles. Shyamal (talk) 02:49, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
Here is the list so far, the females are a lot tougher and I am not sure if they will turn out well enough.
Really impressive. I didn't expect that much from you. Glad to see you'll try to make images of females—a lot of articles have photos of males only. The Saxaul Sparrows look ready to use, in addition to the ones you've already added. —innotata17:05, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
On second thoughts I think I will stay away from illustrating the females, too many of them quite similar to female house sparrows and there are too many subtle shades involved. Need to work on some articles as well. Shyamal (talk) 03:44, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
I've just noticed that the images you've found and created and the photos I've found on Flickr have made all the sparrows except some rufous sparrows have images—something I didn't expect would happen. —innotata21:00, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
3rd Asian Lepidoptera Conservation Symposium
Hi Shyamal,
Have received confirmation of the dates from Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO) who are co-ordinating and hosting ALCS3 in Coimbatore, India. Will be from 25th to 29th October 2010. I do not have registration information yet. ZOO have their own website and will be announcing further details over the next few weeks.
cheers, Roger HKmoths (talk) 07:42, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, those will be particularly useful for Dusky Crag Martin, speaking of which
I have a map in Turner, but it's not very big (same for Grimmett, which doesn't include east of range, and I suspect Rasmussen). Do you have anything better?
Do you fancy a collaboration on this, either now or to take it to FAC?
I have a Pupa image (placed opposite) provided by User:Meganmccarty. We would like to be annotated like the pupa image here. May I request you to use your Inkscape skills? Mrs Murmure is away on leave. AshLin (talk) 04:28, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
If you intend to have your images used on more than one language, you might want to think about using a number key. You could add the numbers to your pics, or use the annotated image template - example to right Jimfbleak - talk to me?05:34, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
1
2
3
4
5
Tagged birds migrated from Syria (1) via Yemen (2) to Ethiopia (3) and returned via Eritrea (4).[1] Birds from Birecik (5) visited the Syrian colony at Palmyra.[2]
Interesting, but I think the template has a problem in dealing with rescaling - uses absolute pixel positions and a change in the image size requires manual repositioning of the annotation markers. Shyamal (talk) 06:35, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
No specific reference for raptor predation I am afraid nor have I seen a global distribution map for concolor - in fact I have good sources only for South Asia, the Southeast Asia guide I have does not have maps - a constant problem for me when I am upgrading articles. Shyamal (talk) 08:18, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
Here's another thing I need for the sparrow articles: a map for the Spanish Sparrow and the Italian Sparrow. The range of these two species is extremely complicated, and it would be good to mark out things like zones of intergradation. If you are intersted in making this sort of map, let me know —innotata15:23, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
I'll e-mail you the maps from The Sparrows after I read wife selling, and for the Spanish Sparrow in Europe, there is the the EBCC, though they have a wierd definition of the Italian Sparrow. Here's a summary of the two species's range:
In most of the Spanish Sparrow's range, it overlaps and hybridises with the House Sparrow a little. It is partly migratory.
In part of northern Africa, there is a "hybrid swarm" between House and Spanish
In northern Italy and Corsica there is the Italian Sparrow.
The Italian Sparrow intergrades with the House Sparrow over a 20-mile wide strip roughly following the northern border of Italy (this is a very stable situation), and over Italy south of Naples and Foggia with the Spanish Sparrow
In Malta and Crete there are some more intermediates
Actually, there are intermediates between the Cretan sparrows and the House Sparrow on Rhodes, but these probably can be skipped for a map! It would be good to have a map covering all or a lot of this for Spanish Sparrow and perhaps a crop or something for the Italian Sparrow. —innotata15:50, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
The map you chose to draw on does not look ideal—countries like the Vatican and San Marino pop up. Also, the Italian Sparrow's range actually extends a bit further north. —innotata17:12, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
Have modified the map base - I also noticed that the cross hatching differentiates the eastern population - I changed that colour for that but an in map legend is probably needed. Could you suggest the legend text ? Shyamal (talk) 03:42, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
Looks quite nice, but there is one error—Italian Sparrows occur on Corsica. As for the legend: "breeding" can be removed after Passer italiae; "Passer italiae hybrids" can be changed something like hispaniolensis X italiae hybrids, and "Passer hispaniolensis hybrids" to something like hispaniolensis X domesticus hybrids. "Passer" could be abbreviated to P.. —innotata17:17, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
I tried making the changes, but I think I'll e-mail you another map the day after tomorrow. Meanwhile, can you correct Corsica? —innotata02:14, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
It turns out the HBW considers Sicilian birds to be Italian Sparrows, as well as Cretan birds, but I don't think this needs to be added to the map—Töpfer's review of the Italian Sparrow's taxonomy was skeptical of this. —innotata17:23, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
Hi Shyamal, The file you made for Jerdon's Bushlark (and possibly others) looks very useful, but on my WebTV system I could perceive literally no difference in color between the land and the sea, although the range colors are quite distinct, both from the background and eachother. When I opened the file for a closer look the land was scarcely a hair's difference darker than the sea, but was a headache just to try (perhaps my system generalizes colors overmuch). Would you please consider altering it to make the land, if possible, even darker? Not much, probably about 4 more hairs I would estimate should do it. If there are other's you have made with matching color scheme's, I'm sure at they are just as hard to see, for me at least. Otherwise, it's a real nice job.
Thanks, Hamamelis (talk) 05:26, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. Glad to have Gavrilov's paper; it is a good summary of his research, and a few important facts aren't in Summers-Smith. —innotata14:36, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
Will look over it soon - The Brehms work is fine but would need the life span of "A. Frisch, Berlin" to ensure that the Nov. Zool. images are in public domain. Shyamal (talk) 01:56, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. I didn't notice the name of the illustrator; I thought the illustrations were anonymous, and they accompany a paper by Rothschild and Hartert, whose works are public domain. —innotata13:49, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
Hi. It looks like more protection is in order. I would like, once again, to remove all the ridiculous personal attacks from the talk page and protect it, as well. Would you agree? It may also be necessary to re-open the sock puppet case if this continues. Dyanega (talk) 17:29, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
Hi Doug. Bengalia is already under semi-protection. Yes, feel free to delete the talk page personal attacks. I am not sure if protecting the talk page is suitable given the low intensity of activity - and at least acts like an escape pressure valve. Also, it seems like he (User:Anlirian, User:109.186.34.91 etc.) has accepted a compromise wording of the article so hopefully some peace will reign there. (diff ) Shyamal (talk) 02:00, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
GBIF data is usually more to do with specimen associated locality data - and sometimes wrong due to incorrect georeferencing. Do you have a good source for breeding records. The dates in the first map are indistinguishable from the sea depth figures... and the lettering is hard to detect as you have pointed out. Shyamal (talk) 01:54, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
Ah. I had better not make assumptions. Okay, there is a list of breeding sites on the page under Distribution (there aren't many). I'll try to find a map with the dots already on it though. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (talk) 02:00, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
Thanks a lot for your offer of assistance, would you agree with my ident of this spider: might it be Nephila pilipes jalorensis. --Benjamint08:28, 1 May 2010 (UTC)
It certainly looks like a Nephila but I would think twice before putting a species on it, but try mailing - manju.siliwal at gmail.com - she is an expert on the spiders of the South Asian region. Shyamal (talk) 08:36, 1 May 2010 (UTC)
Thanks, I emailed her. Can I email you in the future as well to save uploading with incorrect filenames again? email me at benjamint444 at gmail dot com if you don't want to post your address ;) Benjamint01:59, 2 May 2010 (UTC)
Shyamal, I am a member of Marathi Wiki, have been writing about wild life in Marathi. Saw many photos you have uploaded. I wanted to know whether you have any photo / sketch and information on Phayre's Langur. Please see [10] one of my articles showing pictures and names of animals. Here the photo of said Langur is missing, can you help? Gypsypkd (talk) 05:31, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
Will try. Published research is probably easier to put together but regional photographers who contribute to the public domain are rarer than these primates. Shyamal (talk) 14:53, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
National chauvinism in category space
Man, 2.100.23.252 | this guy's like a bot really pissing me off. Can we undo his edits with a bot? AshLin (talk) 14:09, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
I have looked at the rulebook and there it is hard to ban such stuff especially when "fauna by {country}" has become a standard. I have already brought this up - but I think there is no rule or guideline being broken by this editor apart from a complete refusal to discuss edits and being anonymous on a dynamic IP. See Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2010_May_10#Category:Mammals_of_India and now this editor has set about on Category:Frogs_of_India apart from Category:Amphibians_of_India (which differs by only the caecilians and one newt!). This is only the first pass, the next mission of our anon editor is to mark out which of these are found in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Sikkim etc. and then rename India as "republic of India" and move it back on the alphabetic country lists added by Polbot - the editor also likes to rename Israel to "State of Israel" and likewise have it moved back ! Have assembled a partial IP list for someone who may want to take action - User:First_Light/Fauna_vandalism#Nationalist_vandalism - would be best for someone from outside the South Asia region to do it in any case. Shyamal (talk) 15:03, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
Hi Shyamal, Feel free to keep adding those IPs to my subpage if it helps, or you can move it here, either way. It is helpful for me since I watchlist a lot of bird articles for vandalism, and seeing those IP ranges makes it easier to catch. First Light (talk) 17:10, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
Licenses
Shyamal, can you remember that images need to be PD in the US and the source country for upload to Wikimedia Commons? I've been cleaning up licenses for commons:Category:PD India and some similar categories, and I've found a lot of your uploads (all I've found without US licenses so far are OK, usually as {{PD-1923}}). Thanks, —innotata23:38, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
Oh, and can you tag files by authors who died over 100 years ago with {{PD-old-100}}? This shows that the file is out of copyright worldwide. —innotata23:49, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
Hello, you have cited a sentence claiming to be my sentence, but it is not. So I have edited/modified your message [11]. --Snek01 (talk) 23:42, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
Actually I was trying to say that you pointed out that that statement by R D M Page was in error. Anyway, the trimmed version is clear too. Shyamal (talk) 01:42, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
E-mail
Are you going to Bharathiar? I just sent an e-mail. If it doesn't arrive I'll send the same from my hotmail. Sometime try thi
[12]from Holland has music which enhances the effect.I thought it excellent. Very warm regards Robert Notafly (talk) 10:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
Wikisource
Thought you might want to see what I've done for ornithological texts at Wikisource. For journals there's s:The Condor—a (random) choice of the first journal to work on that was pleasantly surprising: I'd say the Condor was much more forward thinking around the turn of the century than the Ibis or Auk. I've been adding so many papers from this journal that there have constantly been some in the "new texts" section on the main page for over a week. The earliest issues of the Ibis already have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons to be added to Wikisource, and I expect to do the same with Pacific Coast Avifauna and the JBNHS soon.
Interesting, a lot of work although I never quite understood the motivation behind Wikisource - especially since there was already a collaborative OCR proofreading site and the Internet Archive does a fairly good job with their OCR - esp. good enough for Google indexing - but they do not have an easy system for improving the OCR-ed text. Shyamal (talk) 01:54, 27 May 2010 (UTC)
What the motivation behind Wikisource is I don't know, maybe you can look at Wikisource or this. It certainly seems much better in than Project Gutenberg in most respects. The texts are much more readable, and can accommodate images and complicated formatting (compare s:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is a comparatively poorly proofread text and the Project Gutenberg equivalent); and proofreading, as at s:Index:BirdWatchingSelous.djvu is much easier. Some Wikisource texts, such as most Encyclopædia Brittanica entries are copied from Project Gutenberg and corrected further; a large number of Wikisource's texts are created off djvu files from the Internet Archive, including all the books I'm working on. —innotata14:22, 27 May 2010 (UTC)
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![[1]](http://www.giffbeaton.com/Tanazia%202005/Chestnut%20Sparrow_2005-01-20-0238.jpg){kind=link}
