Bird Dictionary

Aasvogel to Albino

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Aasvogel to Albino

Alectorides to Amazon

Ambiens to Ani

Anisodactyli to Ateal

Auk to Axilla

Babbler to Barley Bird

Barwing to Bengali

Berghaan to Blackbird

Blackcap to Bluecap

Bluethroat to Bronze Wing

Brubru to Buzzard

Caeca to Carr Goose

Cashew Bird to Charadriomorphae

Chat to Churn Owl

Circulation to Cob

Cobblers-Awl to Coracoid

Coracomorphae to Crest

Crocker to Cypselomorphae

Dabchick to Devling

Dhayal to Dollarbird

Aasvogel
            (Carrion-bird), the name given to some of the larger Vultures by the Dutch colonists in South Africa, and generally adopted by English residents (Layard, B. S. Africa, pages. 5,6).
 

Abadavine or Aberduvine
            Etymology and spelling doubtful.  A name applied in 1735 by Albin (Suppl. Nat. Hist. B. p. 71) to the Siskin, but perhaps hardly ever in use, though often quoted as if it were.
 

Acanthiza
           The scientific name given in 1826 by Vigors and Horsfield to a genus of birds commonly ranked with the Sylviidae (Warbler), and used as English since Gould's time for the eight or more species which inhabit Australia.
 

Accentor
            Bechstein's name for a genus of Sylviidae (including the Hedge-Sparrow and its allies) which some British authors have tried with small success to add to the English language.
 

Accipitres
            The name given by Linnaeus to his first Order of the Class Aves, consisting of what are commonly known as Birds-of-Prey, namely, the Vultures, the Eagles and Hawks, and the Owls.
 

Acorn-Duck
            A name given in some parts of North America to the Carolina or Wood-Duck, Aex sponsa.
 

Acromyodi
            Garrod's name (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 507) for a group of birds practically the same as the Oscines, Polymyodi or true Passeres of various authors, "an acromyodian bird, being one in which the muscles of the Syrinx are attached to the extremities of the bronchial semi-rings." The Acromyodi are further divided into two groups, one (abnormales or Pseudoscines) consisting of, so far as is known, only the genera Atrichia (Scrub-Bird) and Menura (Lyre-Bird), the other (normales) containing all the rest of the Oscines.


 

Adjutant
             
 

Aegithognathae
            The fourth and last Suborder of Carinatae, according to Prof. Huxley's arrangement (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pages 450-456, 467-472), founded chiefly on palatal characters, containing two groups, the Cypselomorpae and Coracomorphae, and possibly a third, the Celeomorphae (or Gecinomorphae).  In the true aegithognathous structure the vomer is broad, abruptly truncated in front and deeply cleft behind, so as to embrace the rostrum of the sphenoid; the palatals have produced postero-external angles, the maxillo-palatals are slender at their origin, and extend obliquely inwards and backwards over the palatals, ending beneath the vomer in expanded extremities, not united either with one another or with the vomer, nor is the last united with the ossification of the anterior part of the nasal septum - a not uncommon condition. As a whole the Aegithognathae correspond pretty well with the Insessores of Vigors.


 

Aetomorphae
            Professor Huxley's name (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pages 462-465) for that group of his Suborder Desmognathae, which includes the Birds-of-Prey, commonly so called, and therefore practically equivalent to the Accipitres of Linnaeus and the Raptores of many authors. Prof. Huxley makes four divisions of the Aetomorphic birds, namely, Strigidae (Owls), Cathartidae (Vultures of the New World), Gypaetidae (Vultures of the Old World, Eagles and Hawks), and Gypogeranidae (formed by the Secretary-Bird alone).
 

Aftershaft
            The aftershaft or hyporhachis is the generally small counter-part of a typical feather which springs from the inner surface of the quill common to both. The aftershaft is of the same size as the shaft in the Cassowary, Emu, and in the Moa: it is well developed, but forms an unimportant part of the whole feather in Parrots, most Birds-of-Prey, Herons, Gulls: it is very small and feeble in most Passeres, Grallae, and many Gallinae; and absent or extremely small in the Ostrich, Rhea, Kiwi, Pigeons, Owls, Woodpeckers, Steganopodes, Anseres, and others. As a rule, the aftershaft is best developed in downs, and in the smaller contour-feathers, while it is wanting or minute in the remiges and rectrices. While the absence of an aftershaft is certainly due to its subsequent reduction or loss, it is probable that its great size in the Emu is not a primitive but a secondary acquired feature, because the feathers of the first or nestling plumage of this bird consist of two very unequal halves (see also Feathers).
 

Air-Sacs (or sacs)
            
 

Albatross
            
 

Albino (colloquial noun albinism)
            A case of Heterochrosis, produced by the partial or total absence of the normaIly-present black pigment in the feathers and other parts, In complete albinos the pupil and iris are red, owing to the blood-vessels shining through these otherwise strongly pigmented parts. A lesion of the pulp of a growing feather not unfrequently prevents the deposition of pigment therein, but the pulp recovers as a rule after one or more moults (see Colour).
 
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