Braythistle

The braythistle is a larger-than-average chocolate brown bird with iridescent blue spots. A desert bird and herbivore, the braythistle has a high-pitched staccato call and survives almost exclusively on the milk of cacti. Once a staple of cowboy poetry, the braythistle symbolized proximity to water. Curiously, braythistle was also a word denoting an architectural feature of medieval fortresses, in which spike-studded iron lattice-works were used to brace windows against attack.