Re: Mei's head version 2

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Michael Schmidt <dmschmidt@sprint.ca>:

> having had a moluccan cockatoo for several years, she always sleeps with her
> eyes closed.  I'm not sure if this is the case for other birds, but she also
> has a very thin membrane covering her eye that is almost like a second
> eyelid that activates on a more delicate basis than her regular one.

This is called a nictitating membrane.  Off the top of my head, all the birds I
can think of have one, as well as crocodilians, at least some lizards, some
mammals (e.g. cats), and some sharks.

Nick Pharris
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan