Caruncle (bird anatomy) Caruncle (bird anatomy) A caruncle is defined as 'a small, fleshy excrescence that is a normal part of an animal's anatomy'. Within this definition, caruncles in birds include wattles (or dewlaps), snoods, and earlobes. The term caruncle is derived from Latin 'caruncula', the diminutive of 'carō', flesh. Caruncles are carnosities, often of bright colors such as red, blue, yellow or white. They can be present on the head, neck, throat, cheeks or around the eyes of some birds. They may be present as combs or crests and other structures near the beak, or, hanging from the throat or neck. Caruncles
Hanging already within 6–15 seconds, resulting in a considerably more prolonged and painful death as compared to the standard or long drop hanging, which is intended to kill by using the shock of the drop to fracture the spinal column at the neck. Before 1850, the short drop was the standard method for hanging, and is still common in suicides and extrajudicial hangings (such as lynchings and summary executions) which do not benefit from the specialised equipment and drop-length calculation tables used by the newer methods. A short drop variant is the Austro-Hungarian "pole" method, called Würgegalgen (literally: strangling gallows), in