Dabchick to Devling

Dhayal to Dollarbird

Picture of Dacnis head and beak

Dacnis             A genus established by Cuvier, being now part of the Thraupidae family of tanagers and their relatives.  Ninespecies are recognized, and the skins of two or three of them, remarkable for their beautiful blue or bluish-green coloration, are among the commonest of those in South America.  The Blue Dacnis has a particularly striking conspicuous blue and black colouring

Daker Hen
            An old and widely-spread name of the Land-RAIL, referring, it is thought, to the unsteady flight of the bird, for to "dacker" (Frisian, dakkern, M. Dutch, daeckeren), signifying to stagger, totter or hesitate, is a well-known word in Lincolnshire and perhaps in other districts (cf. Cordeaux, Zoologist, 1883, pp. 228, 229).
 

Darr
            A local name applied to some species of TERN.
 

Darter
            See SNAKE-BIRD.
 

Dassie-Vanger or Coney-catcher
            The Dutch name for an EAGLE in South Africa, adopted by English residents - the "Dassie" being the Rock Hyrax, also known as the Cape Hyrax or Rock Rabbit (Procavia capensis).
 

Daw
       See Jackdaw.
 

Dayal or Oriental Magpie Robin
            
 

Demoiselle Crane
            
 

Dentirostres
            A group of Birds discriminated by Dumeril in 1806 (Zool. Analyt. p. 41), composed of the genera (as then regarded) Buceros (HORNBILL), Momotus (MOTMOT), and Phytotoma (PLANT-CUTTER), as having their bills scored with at least three notches (dentelures).  However, the term Dentirostres was used in 1817 in a wholly different sense by Cuvier (Regn. Animal, page 336), so as to contain:

• Laniidae
• Tanagridae
• Muscicapidae
• Ampelidae [ = Cotingidae]
• Edolius
• Turdidae
• Pyrrhocorax
• Oriolidae
• Myiothera
• Cinclus
• Philedon
• Gracula
• Menura
• Pipra
• and Motacilla.

Dertrum
            The hook of the BILL.
 

Desmodactyli
            The name proposed by Forbes (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, page 390) for a group of PASSERES, consisting of the Eurylaimidae (Broadbill).
 

Desmognathae
            Professor Huxley's third Suborder of Carinatae, composed of seven groups - Chenomorphae, Amphimorphae, PELARGOMORPHAE, DYSPOROMORPHAE: Aetomorphae, PSITTACOMORPHAE, and Coccygomorphae - in all of which the vomer is often abortive or so small as to disappear; but, when existing, it is slender, and tapers anteriorly to a point, while the maxillo-palatals are united (whence the name of the Suborder) across the middle line, either directly or by the ossification of the nasal septum, and the posterior ends of the palatals and anterior of the pterygoids articulate directly with the rostrum. Moreover, the lower larynx in these birds is never formed on the plan of the PASSERES. It may be observed that nothing approaching to this association of the groups above named had ever before been proposed by any taxonomer (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pages 435-448, 460-466).
 

Devil-Bird
            A name applied by the English in Ceylon to a the Brown Wood Owl (Strix leptogrammica, previously known as Syrnium indrani).  The name Devil-Bird was also applied to a particular GOATSUCKER in the 19th Century which was known as Kellart's Nightjar, Caprimulgus kelaarti (Legge, B. Ceyl. pages 155, 337) although I have been unable to trace the modern name of this Nightjar.
 

Devling
            A common local name for the SWIFT.

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