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MANUCODE

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 608 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANUCODE , from the See also:

French, an See also:abbreviation of Menu codiata, and the Latinized See also:form of the See also:Malay Manukdewata, meaning, says See also:Crawfurd (Malay and Engl. See also:Dictionary, p. 97), the " See also:bird of the gods," and a name applied for more than two See also:hundred years apparently to birds-of-See also:paradise in See also:general. In the See also:original sense of its inventor, Montbeillard (Hist. nat. oiseaux, 163), Manucode was restricted to the See also:king birdof-paradise and three allied See also:species; but in See also:English it has curiously been transferred 1 to a small See also:group of species whose 1 Manucodiata was. used by M. J. See also:Brisson (Ornithologie, ii. 130) as a generic See also:term See also:equivalent to the Lim-mean Paradisea. In 1783 Boddaert, when assigning scientific names to the birds figured by See also:Daubenton, called the subject of one of them (Pl. enlum. 634) Manucodia chalybea, the first word being apparently an accidental curtailment of the name of Brisson's genus to which he referred it. Nevertheless some writers have taken it as See also:evidence, of an intention to found a new genus py that name, and hence the importation of Manucodia into scientific nomenclature, and the English form to correspond.relationship to theParadiseidae has been frequently doubted, and must be • considered uncertain. These manucodes have a glossy See also:steel-See also:blue plumage of much beauty, but are distinguished from other birds of similar coloration. by the See also:outer and See also:middle toes being See also:united for some distance, and by the extraordinary convolution of the trachea, in the See also:males at least, with which is correlated the 'loud and clear See also:voice of the birds. The See also:con-voluted portion of the trachea lies on the See also:breast, between the skin and the muscles, much as is found in the See also:females of the painted snipes (Rostratula), in the males of the curassows (Cracidae), and in a few other' birds, ' but wholly unknown elsewhere among the Passeres.

Thee manucodes are See also:

peculiar to' the Papuan sub-region (including therein the See also:peninsula of Cape 'See also:York), and comprehend, according' to R. B. See also:Sharpe (See also:Cat. B. Brit. Museum, iii. 164), two genera, for the first of which, distinguished by the elongated' tufts on the See also:head; he adopts R. P. See also:Lesson's name Phonygama, and for the second, having no tufts, but the feathers of the head crisped, that of 'Manucodia; and W. A. See also:Forbes (Prot. 'See also:tool.

See also:

Soc. 1882, p. 349) observed that the validity of the separation was con-firmed by their tracheal formation. Of Phonygama Sharpe recognizes three species, P. keraudreni (the type) and P. jamesi, both from New See also:Guinea, and' P. gouldi, the Australian representative species; but the first two are considered by D. G. Elliot (See also:Ibis. 1878, p. 56) and See also:Count Salvadori (Ornitol. della Papuasia, ii. 510) to be inseparable. ' There is a greater unanimity in regard' to the species of the so-called genus Manucodia proper,- of ' which four are admitted—M. chalybeata or chalybea from See also:north-western New Guinea, M. comriei from the See also:south-eastern See also:part of the same See also:country, M. atra of wide See also:distribution within the Papuan See also:area, and M. jobiensis peculiar to the See also:island which "gives it a name. Little is known of the habits of these birds, except that they are, as already mentioned, remarkable for their vocal See also:powers, which, in P. keraudreni, Lesson describes (Voy. de la Coquille, " Zoologie," i. 638) as enabling them to pass through every See also:note of the See also:gamut.

(A.

End of Article: MANUCODE

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MANUEL DE MELLO, DOM FRANCISCO (? 1611–1666)