Feathers

In defense of Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot a wealthy campaign contributor while hunting quail over the weekend, the two species can be easily confused. Here, then, is a primer, for Cheney and hunters and non-hunters everywhere, on how to differentiate between the two. Bobwhite Quail: Scientific name, Colinus virginianus. Wealthy Campaign Contributor: Cloutus politicus. Quail: 8 inches to 11 inches long and weighing about half a pound; reddish-brown feathers are mottled with black, white and gray to help blend into surroundings and avoid predators.

Anna Benson is on the phone from Atlanta, and if you have to ask "Who's Anna Benson?" you should probably pick up the morning paper once in a while or at least turn on the 11 o'clock news. If you did, you'd know Anna Benson is the neck-snapping, poker-playing, pistol-packing ex-stripper-turned-model-wife of pitcher Kris Benson, who was just traded to the Orioles by the New York Mets and who may become the answer to the question "Who's that guy with Anna?" if his wife keeps saying all these outrageous things every time there's a TV camera, microphone or notebook around.

Sculptor Leonard Streckfus' astonishing aviary of pigeons, pheasants and other feathered friends at Galerie Francoise are assembled from old car parts, bowling pins and similar industrial junk in the iconoclastic spirit of Picasso's famous 1943 collage of a bicycle seat and handlebars welded together in the shape of a bull's head. The works recall the "poor art" materials of Italy's Arte Povera movement of the 1960s, as well as the mix-and-match collages of earlier Cubist, Futurist and Constructivist artists, the "combine" paintings of Robert Rauschenberg and the surreal box constructions of Joseph Cornell.

Pernell Richardson donned a porcupine headdress, carried a cluster of feathers on his back and reflected on the centuries-old tradition he was about to kick and stomp his way through. Richardson, 43, had just arrived at Patterson Park yesterday to dance in the Baltimore Native American Festival and Powwow, but also wanted to make an impression on his 14-year-old son, Will. "This is a way for me to pass this along to him," said Richardson, a Virginia resident, as his son put on a bright yellow and orange vest in preparation for his own dance.

Romance is what March of the Penguins is all about," says Adam Leipzig, president of National Geographic Feature Films. "I hope it gets nominated for best kiss at the MTV movie awards."

TO MOST PEOPLE, parking in Baltimore and most other cities is too expensive and too hard to find. To Donald Shoup, it's too cheap and too available. Shoup is a professor of urban planning at UCLA and the author of a recently published book, The High Cost of Free Parking. At 733 pages, the book, published by the American Planning Association, is long - but Shoup's message is short and sweet. He argues that the conventional decades-old urban policy of providing free or subsidized on-street parking and requiring off-street parking for new development contributes to congestion and discourages alternatives to automobile transportation such as mass transit, walking and bicycling.

Bob Iger has a message for Steve Jobs: Let's talk. Yesterday, the day after he was named the next chief executive of Walt Disney Co., Iger said a top priority was to reach out to the Pixar Animation Studios chief in hopes of repairing a fractured partnership that over the years produced such blockbusters as The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and the Toy Story films. "I will certainly make an attempt and look forward to some dialogue provided he's willing," Iger, now Disney's president, said.

Buz Meyer knows a turkey when he sees one. This I know. He has seen me. Several years back, I took my state hunter safety course at his Anne Arundel County nature preserve called Meyerstation. Best five bucks I ever put in a coffee can. Meyer and Chuck Lewis put on a clinic for about 40 folks - some new to the sport, some parents with youngsters, some just taking a refresher course. The atmosphere is informal, hence the coffee can for donations. But the instruction and especially the ethics talk is dead serious.

AMERICA'S homeowners have grown their equities by a mind-numbing $5 trillion since 1995, thanks to a 70 percent average increase in the values of their houses. Guess what they've been doing with that wealth? Right: Buying cars, buying vacation property, paying kids' tuition, taking overseas vacations. But some of the smartest of them, according to new research, have been liquefying part of their equities and plowing it back into their homes at a dizzying pace - nearly one-quarter of a trillion dollars of home improvements a year.

Critter counts. We've been doing them since Howdy Doody was a 2-by-4, from swans a-swimming and geese a-laying to Dr. Seuss' red fish and blue fish. This year is no different. Hearty bands of volunteers will be tromping around this season, sizing up the populations of bird species and taking stock of the traditional spawning grounds of yellow perch. Both groups could use a couple more boots (and waders) on the ground. Tuesday starts the 105th annual "Christmas Bird Count" sponsored by the National Audubon Society and billed as the nation's oldest and largest citizen-run science project.