It looks like an oversize, long-necked chicken with a piercingly loud squawk and impressive yellow-gold tail plumage.
On Monday, a Yamato hinotori (Latin name: Oyacou domburicus), believed to be the first to set foot in Japan in nearly eight centuries, was unveiled to the media at the government¡¯s Alien Wildlife Quarantine Shelter in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Long thought extinct, the bird is nevertheless a familiar sight to almost every Japanese, as its image, since November 2004, has appeared on the reverse side of the nation¡¯s ?10,000 note.
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