Folly of the Faithful Canine

The white and black rhinos are much the same color.
Their names are alleged to have come
From faulty translation of wyd, Afrikaans
Word for wide, tho it sounds rather dumb.

The best way to tell them apart is to look
At the mouth, for the “white’s” lips are broad
And flat with strong muscles for grazing; the “black’s”
Lips are hook-shaped for branch eating (odd).

The white rhino’s body is shaped like a barrel
And long, not compact like the black.
The white has a hump on the nape of its neck,
While the black has more arch in its back.

The white’s head is apt to stay low to the ground.
Its long ears help make up for its vision.
The black’s ears are smaller and rounder; its eyeballs
Enable more optic precision.

They both have two horns, but the black’s are more even.
The white has a long one up front.
The black’s territorial, often aggressive.
The white’s more inclined just to grunt.

The white is endangered; the black’s even more so.
In large part, the blame is on poaching.
I’m glad that I got to see both on safari
While hopefully not too encroaching.

Dugongs and manatees both are called sea cows.
They’re slow-moving, mostly herbivorous beasts
Belonging to order Sirenia, named
For mythology’s sirens (a stretch at the least).

The manatee comes in three species: West Indian,
African, and Amazonian sorts.
The dugong’s just one now; the past Steller’s sea cow
Died out due to hunting—for fat, not for sport.

The dugongs live only in saltwater regions,
Preferring the shallow and sheltered, like bays.
Two manatee species will migrate to freshwater;
There Amazonians spend all their days.

One obvious difference: A manatee ends
In a paddle-shaped, one-lobed, and beaverlike tail.
A dugong’s is fluked, made of two separate lobes
That combine in the middle, a lot like a whale.

The snout of a dugong is broader and trunk-like.
It points itself down with a mouth that’s a slit
To eat off the sea floor. Adult males and some
Older females have tusks that they fight with a bit.

A manatee’s muzzle is shorter and features
A cleft upper lip meant for feeding on plants
That grow near the surface. It also has whiskers
Instead of mere bristles, not clear at a glance.

A manatee’s teeth have hind molar progression:
As front teeth grind down and fall out over time,
The molars that grow in the back can emerge
And push forward the other teeth. That’s just sublime.

A dugong is born a pale cream and attains
A slate gray as it lives about 70 years.
A manatee’s typically gray-brown and dies
Around 40. Both hear well for no outer ears.

The dugongs are lifelong monogamists. Manatee
Females will hardly mind sharing their men.
They start giving birth at age three, while the dugongs
Spend more time between births and start at age ten.

Although all sirenians mostly are noticed
Alone or in pairs, only dugongs are seen
In gatherings greater than six—sometimes more
Than a hundred together. That sight must be keen!

A manatee sees well despite tiny eyeballs.
By contrast, a dugong has eyesight that’s poor….
Good heavens, I’ve talked a blue streak on these mammals.
Go look somewhere else if you really want more.

The scallop and clam are both bivalves and easy
To tell from an oyster or mussel
But harder to tell from each other, and so
I read websites for solving the puzzle.

The edge of a scallop’s distinctively ribboned
All over the lips of its shell.
A clam’s edge is usually smooth and quite rounded.
This makes the most obvious tell.

Inside, you can find that a scallop has eyes
With a mirror instead of a lens.
A clam has no eyes, ears, or nose; I’m amazed
At the senses on which it depends.

A clam has a lengthy and muscular foot
Meant for moving or digging in sand.
The foot of a scallop is underdeveloped,
Since swimming is more of its brand.

A clam tends to live where the land meets the sea,
Hence the digging to counter the waves.
A scallop lives hundreds of feet underwater,
Conducive to how it behaves.

On average, scallops are larger than clams
But unlikely to live for so long.
Clams also observe longer seasons for spawning.
(Your image of that may be wrong.)

The other distinctions are found via eating,
In texture, nutrition, and taste.
I’ll let you decide which you’d rather consume.
Now I hope that my rhymes weren’t a waste.

Another St. Patrick’s Day’s already over,
But can you tell shamrocks from more types of clover?
We rule out the ones that are purple or white
Or come with four leaves, tho they are a rare sight.
St. Patrick supposedly used the three leaves
In explaining the Trinity as he perceived.
The Irish word seamróg means clover that’s small.
That standard won’t narrow the field much at all.
The term is applied to no fewer than five
Plant species reported on Erin to thrive.
The Trifolium genus accounts for a lot,
But so does Oxalis, which really is not
For clovers. Most often, it’s just the wood sorrel,
The so-called false shamrock. Confusion is normal.
There’s also black medic, among other names
For an herb that is subject to shamrocky claims.
These national signs of the Emerald Isle
Are not scientific but still make us smile.

Some sources say a mandolin’s a certain type of lute,
While others count them sep’rately. I won’t join that dispute.
Instead, I’ll note how mandolins stand out from all the rest
Of what we label lutes. Perhaps what first should be addressed
Is how they’re played: A mandolin most often takes a pick
For plucking, while for others, only strumming does the trick.
Most lutes are deep and bowl-like, but a mandolin is flat
And streamlined, and it doesn’t have an L-shaped neck like that.
Its pegs do not face backward; they stick outward to the side.
For extra pressure on the strings, the bridge is where it’s wide.
Some models have a pair of sound holes like a violin.
They always have four double strings; for lutes, that’s very thin.
A mandolin is more compact and easier to learn.
I’d sooner recommend it if you don’t have cash to burn.