MA VIS—MEGAPODE 539 



bottle-shaped nest, as does also the Eock-Martin of Europe, Hirundo 

 or BiMis rupestris ; but space fails wherein to tell more of these 

 interesting birds, which are treated of in the beautifully-illustrated 

 monograph of Hirundinidx now in course of publication by Messrs. 

 Sharpe and Wyatt. 



MAVIS, Fr. Mauvis,^ a common local name of the Song-THRUSH. 



MAXILLA, a rather slender bone on each side of the anterior 

 part of the head connecting the jugal with the premaxilla, and 

 forming part of the lateral margin of what is often called the Upper 

 Mandible, though the word Maxilla is frequently used to express 

 the whole of the upper jaw. Its palatal processes are of consider- 

 able taxonomic value (see Skull). 



MAY-BIRD and MAY-FOWL, common names of the Whimbrel 

 in England, and the former given on the east coast of North America 

 to the Knot as well as to the Bobolink, while 



MAY-COCK is, in places, applied to the Grey Plover, Squaiarola 



helvetica ; and 



MAY-CHICK, according to Sir T. Browne, was used in Norfolk 

 for some bird " a little bigger than a Stint, of fatness beyond any." 

 This last seems to be obsolete ; but all doubtless refer to the month 

 in which the birds bearing the names appeared. 



MEADOW-CHICKEN and MEADOW-HEN, names given in 

 North America to more than one species of Rail or Coot ; but the 



MEADOW-LARK of the same coimtry is Sturnella magna (see 

 Icterus). 



MEGAPODE, the name given generally to a small but remark- 

 able Family of birds highly characteristic of some parts of the Aus- 

 tralian Region, to which it is almost peculiar. The Megapodiidse with 

 the Cracidse form that division of GalUnse named by Prof. Huxley 

 Peristewpodes (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 296), and morphologically 

 seem to be the lowest of the Order, with which apparent fact may 

 perhaps be correlated their singular habit of leaving their eggs to be 

 hatched without incubation, either burying them in the ground (as 

 many Reptiles do) or heaping over them a mound of earth, leaves, 



^ Now applied chiefly to the Kedwing, Turdus iliacus, but also to the Crested 

 Lark, and the Mauviette of French cookery is always a Lark. The old Norman 

 form, whence we probably get our word, is said to be Maulvis (Gaste apud Rolland, 

 Fauiie Pop. Fr. p. 243). According to Littre its origin is uncertain ; some 

 supposing it to be the Low Latin Malvitius ( = malum vitis, or scourge of the vine, 

 the Neapolitan Marvizzo), others allege the Low Breton Milvid (a Gull) or 

 Milhuez (a Lark). The Walloon M&vi or Maiioi, according to Baron de Selys- 

 Longchamps a Blackbird, is evidently the same word. 



