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MANAKIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 539 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANAKIN , from the Dutch word Manneken, applied to certain small birds, a name apparently introduced into See also:

English by G. See also:Edwards (Nat. Hist. Birds, i. 21) in or about 1743, since which See also:time it has been accepted generally, and is now used for those which See also:form the See also:family Pipridae. The manakins are See also:peculiar to the Neotropical Region and have many of the habits of the See also:titmouse family (Paridae), living in deep forests, associating in small bands, and keeping continually in See also:motion, but feeding almost wholly on the large soft berries of the different kinds of Melastoma. The Pipridae, however, have no See also:close See also:affinity with the Paridae,' but belong to another See also:great See also:division of the See also:order Passeres, the Clamatores See also:group of the Anisomyodae. The manakins are nearly all birds of See also:gay See also:appearance, generally exhibiting See also:rich tints of See also:blue, See also:crimson, See also:scarlet, See also:orange or yellow in See also:combination with See also:chestnut, deep See also:black, black and See also:white, or See also:olive See also:green; and among their most obvious characteristics are their See also:short See also:bill and feeble feet, of which the See also:outer toe is See also:united to the See also:middle toe for a See also:good See also:part of its length. The tail, in most See also:species very short, has in others the middle feathers much elongated, and in one of the outer rectrices are attenuated and produced into threads. They have been divided (Brit. See also:Mus. See also:Cat.

Birds, vol. xiv.) into nineteen genera with about seventy species, of which eighteen are included under Pipra itself. P. leucilla, one of the best known, has a wide See also:

distribution from the See also:isthmus of See also:Panama to See also:Guiana and the valley of the See also:Amazon; but it is one of the most plainly coloured of the family, being black with a white See also:head. The genus Machaeropterus, consisting of four species, is very remarkable for the extraordinary form of some of the secondary wing-feathers in the See also:males, in which the See also:shaft is thickened and the webs changed in shape, as described and illustrated by P. L. Sclater (Prot. Zool. Society, 186o, p. 9o; See also:Ibis, 1862, p. 1752) in the See also:case of the beautiful M. deliciosus, and it has been observed that the wing-bones of these birds are also much thickened, no doubt in correlation with this abnormal structure. A like deviation from the See also:ordinary See also:character is found in the allied genus Chiromachaeris, comprehending seven species, and Sclater is of the See also:opinion that it enables them to make the singular See also:noise for which they have See also:long been noted, described by O. Salvin (Ibis, r86o, p. 37) in the case of one of them, M. candaei, 'as beginning " with a See also:sharp See also:note not unlike the crack of a See also:whip," which is " followed by a rattling See also:sound not unlike the See also:call of a landrail "; and it is a similar See also:habit that has obtained for another species, M. edwardsi, the name in See also:Cayenne, according to See also:Buffon (Hist.

Nat. Oiseaux, iv. 413), of Cassenoisette. (A.

End of Article: MANAKIN

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