DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 



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, pp. 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 Sylviidse 

 (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 Sylviidx (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 ; 

 the last being by many recent authors, whose example is followed 

 in the present work, separated from the first two. 



ACORN-DUCK, a name given in some parts of North America 

 to the Carolina or Wood-Duck, u^x sponsa. 



ACROMYODI, Garrod's name {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 507) 

 for a group of birds practically the same as the OsciNES, PoLY- 

 ]\rYODi 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- 



