Word To Use Today: titi.

Even the dictionary goes into raptures over titis.

Long beautifully-coloured fur, it says: and the dictionary is quite right.

This is the rather dull-sounding Brown Titi:



but just look at that lovely silver tail. There are Red-bellied titis, White-eared titis, Coppery titis, and even Lucifer titis, too.

The monkey titis live in South America, but there are also titis in North America. In this case they are trees, especially the small evergreen ones presumably called after someone called Cyril, the Cyrillaceae:


This is Cyrilla racemiflora, also know as the swamp titi. Or the red titi. Or the black titi. Or the white titi.

Finally, a titi is one of these:

Sooty Shearwater by Chester A Reed.


There we are: three different sorts of titis from three different continents, and all of them glorious.

What more could anyone possibly want?

Word To Use Today: titi. The monkey word comes from the Aymaran for little cat. The tree is from an American Indian language, but no one seems to know which one. The sooty shearwater is from a Māori word which imitates its call.