THfl 



ORGAN IZ 

 KNOWLEDGE 



STORY 

 AND PICTURE 



Jj 



J is the tenth letter in the English alphabet. Like the letter i it was 

 derived from the Phoenician yod, which it resembles more closely than 

 does i, because yod was also a consonant. In early English no distinc- 

 tion was made between i and ;', and even after two forms existed for 

 the two letters, there seemed to be no distinction in their usage ; but 

 little by little the ; came to be used exclusively as a consonant. The 

 sound value of ; is not what it was with the Romans, theirs being rather the sound of the 

 English y, which is retained in the word hallelujah. Other languages which were derived 

 from the Latin have changed the sound of this letter also, the French and Portuguese 

 giving it a sound which resembles that of English zh, and the Spanish making of it an 

 aspirate, like English h. Spanish names of places, as San Jose, San Juan, have made 

 people familiar with this use of the letter ;'. 



JABIRU, jab'iroo, the only true stork found 

 in North America. It is common in the trop- 

 ics, and occasionally a jabiru is seen as far 

 north as Texas. It is a very large bird, about 

 four feet long and seven feet across the wings, 

 with a huge bill which is extremely thick at 

 the base, a foot long and curved upward at the 

 tip. Its plumage is pure white, while the bill 

 and legs, as well as the head and neck, which 

 are destitute of feathers, are all black, except 

 for a red ring around the lower part of the 

 neck. See STORK. 



THE JACANA 



In the background, the Mexican species ; in the 

 oreground, the Asiatic. 



JACANA , jak ' a na, a small wading bird re- 

 ted to the plovers, remarkable for its long 



toes and nails, which enable it to run easily 

 over the floating leaves of large aquatic plants 

 in search of food. The various species are 

 distributed over the tropical regions of the 

 globe. An Oriental species, which is called the 

 surgeon bird, has a long tail resembling that of 

 a pheasant. It is brownish above and purplish 

 below, and has a white head and wings. Na- 

 tive artists, from India to Japan, delight to 

 paint the jacana. A typical American species, 

 found in the tropics and as far north as Texas, 

 has purplish-chestnut plumage, and is equipped 

 with strong spurs, one in the bend of each 

 wing. In general appearance and habits it re- 

 sembles the gallinule (which see), or mud hen. 

 See PLOVER. 



JACKAL, jak' awl, a kind of wild dog inhab- 

 iting Asia, Africa and Southeastern Europe. 

 The Arabs call the animal the "howler," be- 

 cause of the dismal cries it utters during the 

 night. In appearance the jackal resembles a 

 fox, with grayish-yellow fur and bushy tail. 

 It is seldom more than fifteen inches high, 

 from shoulder to ground. The animals hunt 

 in packs, usually at night. Because it is not 

 above feeding on carrion, the erroneous notion 

 once prevailed that the jackal helped the lion 

 to track down prey, satisfying itself afterwards 

 with the remnants of the feast. It is timid, 

 and is easily domesticated. The black-backed. 



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