Cats Among the Pigeons, Foxes With the Chickens Quiz

Answer: cat

The African and European wildcats were species from which our domestic cats originated. Both are somewhat larger than domestic cats, with long tails. The European wildcat lives in all sorts of habitats, including high in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain. In the UK it is confined to small numbers in remote areas of Scotland. The African species lives in deserts and savannah.

A wildcat strike is a term to describe industrial action taken by workers without having carried out the normal democratic process.

A cat burglar is somebody who steals from a property without detection, using stealth or agility. This comes from the quiet way a cat can slink around and leap, or climb. In Hitchcock's 1955 movie, "To Catch a Thief", Cary Grant plays John "The Cat" Robie, a retired cat burglar specialising in the theft of jewels, who is framed for a series of burglaries. In real life, Peter Scott, the "King of the Cat Burglars", stole art and jewellery from the likes of Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Shah of Iran, inspiring the 1965 movie, "He Who Rides a Tiger".

Answer: pigeon

The story of the passenger pigeon is one of those mind-blowing episodes in human history that make you think about our effect on the world. A migratory bird, found all over North America, it moved in huge flocks in search of food. Maybe 5 billion of them were alive at their peak, and the sheer volume of passenger pigeons could make the sky darken. One flock was described as being around 1 mile wide and 300 miles long! They had long been hunted by Native Americans. When European settlers arrived, the bird was seen as a great source of plentiful, cheap, food, so hunting really stepped up, and by 1901, the passenger pigeon was extinct in the wild.

Pigeon post makes use of one of the amazing things about the domestic pigeon. They are able to return to their homes after being let out hundreds of miles away. Humans have used pigeons to send messages since the Egyptians, over 5000 years ago. In World War I, the combatants relied heavily on pigeon post to relay battle instructions and intelligence. The French awarded one bird, named Cher Ami, the Croix de Guerre for his service. He was badly wounded after being fired on by German forces, but managed to deliver a message that saved 194 lives.

Answer: fox

The silver fox is a differently-coloured form of the familiar red fox. Its coat colour, ranging from black to silvery grey, is caused by extra amounts of the dark pigment melanin. Silver foxes were prized in the fur trade. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere.

The term silver fox is used to describe an attractive older man, with grey hair. Celebrities such as actors Sean Connery and George Clooney, and even former president Barack Obama have been landed with this label.

The foxtrot is ballroom dance which came to prominence in 1914, though Vernon Castle, the leading dancer and dancing teacher, said the dance originated with black Americans 15 years earlier. The name origin is obscure, though some say it is from Harry Fox, a vaudeville entertainer who helped popularise the foxtrot. An elegant dance, similar in look and style to a waltz, but with four beats to the bar, rather than three, it was massively successful during the 1930s. The foxtrot became one of the key dances for ballroom competitions.

Answer: chicken

"Do the Funky Chicken" was a hit song for Rufus Thomas in 1969. A novelty dance number, with humorous words, it was a crowd favourite when Thomas performed it live. "You flap your arms, And your feet start kicking, Then you know you doin' the funky chicken". Other novelty dance numbers by Rufus Thomas were "Walking the Dog" (1963) and "(Do the) Push and Pull" (1970).

Chicken tenders, also known as chicken fingers, or chicken goujons, are produced from the thin strip of meat attached to the main chicken breast, a muscle known as the pectoralis minor. Chicken tenders were originally a cast-off piece of meat from the main breast. They became increasingly popular as an alternative to red meat, and to other chicken-based products, so that fast food outlets came to develop specialty dishes based on them. One firm dedicated to them was "Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers", formed in 1996.

Answer: fox

Flying foxes is the name given to some of the largest bats in the world, a type of megabat also known as fruit bats. They range across from southern Asia to Australia. Flying foxes mainly eat fruit and vegetable matter, with some species feeding on insects. Unlike other bats, they have excellent eyesight, and do not use echolocation. They are hunted by humans because of the perceived damage they do to crops, although they are valuable in the tropical ecosystem for dispersing seeds. They are also important pollinators - pollination of plants by bats is called chiropterophily. Of 62 flying fox species, three are critically endangered.

Foxgloves, genus digitalis, are beautiful plants that have tubular, bell-like flowers. Hence the name foxglove, and other names for the plant, such as "dragon's mouth", "bloody man's fingers" and "fairy bells". Foxgloves are poisonous to humans, which may account for the more macabre names they are given, like "dead men's thimbles". The drug digitalis, extracted from foxgloves, is used to treat some heart conditions.

Answer: cat

The term "fat cat" is used to denote a wealthy businessman, often assumed to have acquired the wealth fortunately, and often a political donor, attempting to protect their wealth, or be given a political role or honour. In the US in the 1920s, Frank Kent wrote that, a fat cat, tired of "mere piling up of more millions, develops a yearning for some sort of public honor, and is willing to pay for it". Meanwhile, western cat health professionals are increasingly battling an obesity epidemic, with owners over feeding and coddling their fat cats, leading to diseases like diabetes.

The catwalk is the runway that models walk along to display clothes in a fashion show. The style in which models move along catwalks perhaps reminds people of cats walking. In the words of the RuPaul song "Catwalk", "Everywhere you go today, Like the world is your runway, Hit 'em with your catwalk." Cat walk is also a name sometimes given to narrow elevated bridges, certain access areas in theatres, or alleyways.

Answer: pigeon

Stool pigeon, or stoolie, originated in the nineteenth century as a pejorative term for somebody who informs on criminals to the police authorities. The derivation of the expression is from the practice by hunters of tying a pigeon with twine to a relatively heavy object, perhaps to a stool, in order to attract, or not frighten off, other pigeons. Kid Creole and the Coconuts had a song called "Stool Pigeon" in 1982. "'If you wanna squeal', said the F.B.I., 'We can make a deal, make it worth your while,' So he told them all and in return, He got a credit card and a Thunderbird".

Somebody who is pigeon-toed walks or stands with their toes pointed inwards, like a pigeon. It has become a fashion for celebrities to pose for photographs pigeon-toed, perhaps to look cute. A famous person who walked pigeon-toed was John Wayne, star of over 170 roles on film and TV. Many athletes tend to be pigeon-toed. It is speculated that this enables them to run faster, but also leaves them at a higher risk of injury.

Answer: chicken

Playing chicken is when two people compete in a risky activity, with the understanding that whoever pulls out first is a chicken, or coward. The classic examples from the movies usually involve two young men driving cars. In "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), Jim and Buzz play chicken, or have a chicken run, driving two cars at top speed towards the edge of a cliff. First to jump out of the car would be a chicken. Jim jumps out just before the edge, Buzz is trapped in his car and hurtles into the sea. Why did they do it? "You gotta do something".

Chicken Kyiv, named after the capital of Ukraine, is a popular dish, consisting of a pounded chicken breast, stuffed with butter or garlic butter, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried. The dish's origins are not clear, but it was probably produced by haute cuisine chefs of the Russian Empire. In the twentieth century the dish became a popular convenience food.

Answer: fox

The Arctic fox lives in the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere. It is well adapted to living at extremely low temperatures. Its summer coat is brown, and it turns white for the winter. A very fluffy tail helps provide insulation against extremes of temperature. Arctic foxes hunt voles and lemmings, and they are predated on by animals including polar bears and eagles.

A foxhound is a type of dog that has been selectively bred to hunt, using their sense of smell, in a pack, for foxes. The American, English and Welsh foxhounds are slightly different. Hunting foxes with hounds was made illegal in Scotland, England and Wales in the early 2000s.

Answer: cat

The big cats are the large members of the family Felidae: lion, tiger, cheetah, jaguar, leopard, snow leopard and cougar. No big cats are native to Antarctica or Australia. The leopard reaches just into eastern Europe, in the Russian Caucasus. Of the big cats, the tiger is most at risk of extinction, being classified as Endangered.

A catnap is a brief sleep usually in the day time. Its name comes from the sleep habits of cats. Most domestic cats tend to sleep between 12 and 18 hours a day. They are crepuscular, which means they are most active around dawn and dusk, ideal times for predators to be up and about.