Birds That Never Really Were, 4th Flight Quiz

Answer: canary

Big Bird is a canary. The typical canary is four inches long and weighs less than an ounce. Big Bird is eight feet two inches tall and nobody knows how much he weighs. Canaries mostly come from Macronesia (Eastern Atlantic Ocean). Big Bird lives in a very large nest behind the brownstone building at 123 Sesame Street, next to the trash can occupied by Oscar the Grouch. From the beginning in 1969, Big Bird was played by Caroll Spinney. Big Bird sings a song the lyrics to which are the alphabet pronounced as a single word.

He also sang "Bein' Green" at Jim Henson's funeral at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York city on 21 May 1990.

Answer: Australia

Marion Sinclair (1896-1988) wrote "Kookaburra" in 1932 and submitted it to a Girl Guides song-writing competition in Victoria, Australia. She won and the proceeds were used to build a camp at Britannia Park. The song was made popular by its inclusion in Girl Guides song books around the British Empire and Commonwealth.

Answer: Foghorn Leghorn

Cartoonist Robert McKimson and writer Warren Foster created Foghorn Leghorn for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies in 1946. The character was based on another fictional character, Senator Beauregard Claghorn from "Allen's Alley" on "The Fred Allen Show" on the radio. Foghorn is an overweight, loud, Southern chicken who borrowed catch phrases from the radio character such as "Look at me when I'm talkin' to ya, boy." He appeared in theatrical cartoons until 1964.

Answer: Lewis Carroll/Charles L. Dodgson

The Dodo, a bird, appears in Chapters 2 and 3 of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." In the 1865 edition of "Alice" there is a caricature of the Dodo which looks rather like the author, Charles Ludwig Dodgson." There is an argument that the author based to Dodo on himself. Dodson had a stammer and might say his name "Do-do-dodgson".

The actual dodo is an extinct bird. The principal act of the Dodo is to propose, as a method of drying off after a swim, that everyone run a Caucus race, one in which each person starts and ends wherever they like, such that no one can be declare the winner. Dodgson/Carroll loved political satire like that. Please excuse the Walt Disney and Tim Burton adaptations of "Alice" as they depart overfar from the original.

Answer: Tux

Linux is a family of computer operating systems, similar to UNIX, generated by Linus Torvalds in 1991. Not exactly a logo, Linux uses a plump penguin as its "official brand character." This character was inspired by a similar penguin character drawn by Nick Parks. Larry Ewing drew "Tux" for Linux, who was further refined by Torvalds himself. Versions of Tux appear on products variously related to Linux because his image was released "to use or modify" which is how folks involved in Linux do business.

Answer: Henny Penny/Chicken Little

Turkey Lurkey appears in a collection of farm animals, all of whom have rhyming names such as Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Poosey, Gander Lander, and Foxy Loxy. The protagonist, the one who reports that the sky is falling, is variously named Chicken Little in the U.S. and Henny Penny in the U.K. In other version he/she may be named Chicken Licken. There are alternative endings: either the happy one, where the chicken escapes the evil hungry fox, or the unhappy one, where the fox has a full stomach and there are no other characters left alive.

Answer: Duck

Dees' satire was backed by a pulled-together group he called "His Cast of Idiots." The voice of the duck was provided by Ken Pruitt on the record and by Michael Chesney on the live tour. In the story told by the song, a man goes to a party and decides to dance: "flapping my arms, I began to cluck. Look at me. I'm the disco duck." And the back-up urges: "Try your luck. Don't be a cluck. Disco Duck." It made it (briefly) to the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100.

It also made it into the motion picture "Saturday Night Fever."

Answer: Opus T. Penguin

Berkeley Breathed created Opus the Penguin in 1981. Opus appeared in the comic strip "Bloom County." He also appeared in the strip "Outland" (1989-1995) and his own strip "Opus" on Sundays (2003-2008). Breathed announced that Opus would retire and no longer appear in any strip after 2 November 2008. In the last frame, Opus was shown asleep in the same bed that appears in the classic children's book "Goodnight Moon." But the penguin reappeared in "Bloom County" in July of 2015, ostensibly awakening from a long nap.

Answer: Megapolis Zoo

"Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" ran on CBS-TV from 1963-1966; new episodes were produced in 2014. Tennessee, a penguin, and his friends live in the Magapolis Zoo, administered by Stanley Livingston and his assistant Flunky. The critters periodically escape and find adventure in the outside world, only to be recaptured by Livingston. When in need of information, Tennessee turned to Phineas J. Whoopee, a man who had all the answers, who would give them a lecture on some subject, which purported to be the "educational" portion of the programme.

Answer: guard chicken

Pollito is a chicken kept by Eduardo Perez to guard his restaurant Salsa & Salsa. Pollito dislikes Felonious Gru and his girlfriend/partner Lucy Wilde and attacks them several times in the film. According to the storyline, Eduardo obtained Pollito as a chick and kept her for 13 years. "El pollito" in Spanish means "little chicken" or "chick."