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Crecopsis
The African crake (''Crecopsis egregia'') is a small- to medium-size ground-living bird in the rail family, found in most of central to southern Africa. It is seasonally common in most of its range other than the rainforests and areas that have low annual rainfall. This crake is a partial migrant, moving away from the equator as soon as the rains provide sufficient grass cover to allow it to breed elsewhere. There have been a few records of vagrant birds reaching Atlantic islands. This species nests in a wide variety of grassland types, and agricultural land with tall crops may also be used. A smallish crake, the African crake has brown-streaked blackish upperparts, bluish-grey underparts and black-and-white barring on the flanks and belly. It has a stubby red bill, red eyes, and a white line from the bill to above the eye. It is smaller than the corn crake, which is also lighter- plumaged, and has an eye stripe. The African crake has a range of calls, the most characteristic b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rallidae
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, although the family is found in every terrestrial habitat except dry deserts, polar regions, and alpine areas above the snow line. Members of the Rallidae occur on every continent except Antarctica. Numerous island species are known. The most common rail habitats are marshland and dense forest. They are especially fond of dense vegetation.Horsfall & Robinson (2003): pp. 206–207 Name "Rail" is the anglicized respelling of the French ''râle'', from Old French ''rasle''. It is named from its harsh cry, in Vulgar Latin *''rascula'', from Latin ''rādere'' ("to scrape"). Morphology The rails are a family of small to medium-sized, ground-living birds. They vary in length from and in weight from . Some species have long necks and in many ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail (bird)
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, although the family is found in every terrestrial habitat except dry deserts, polar regions, and alpine areas above the snow line. Members of the Rallidae occur on every continent except Antarctica. Numerous island species are known. The most common rail habitats are marshland and dense forest. They are especially fond of dense vegetation.Horsfall & Robinson (2003): pp. 206–207 Name "Rail" is the anglicized respelling of the French ''râle'', from Old French ''rasle''. It is named from its harsh cry, in Vulgar Latin *''rascula'', from Latin ''rādere'' ("to scrape"). Morphology The rails are a family of small to medium-sized, ground-living birds. They vary in length from and in weight from . Some species have long necks and in many ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corn Crake
The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (''Crex crex'') is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the Northern Hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The strong bill is flesh-toned, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey. Juveniles are similar in plumage to adults, and downy chicks are black, as with all rails. There are no subspecies, although individuals from the east of the breeding range tend to be slightly paler than their western counterparts. The male's call is a loud ''krek krek'', from which the scientific name is derived. The corn crake is larger than its closest relative, the African crake, which shares its wintering range; that species is also darker-plumaged, and has a plainer face. The cor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porzana
''Porzana'' is a genus of birds in the crake and rail family, Rallidae. Its scientific name is derived from Venetian terms for small rails. The spotted crake (''P. porzana'') is the type species. Taxonomy The genus ''Porzana'' was erected by the French ornithologist Louis-Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the spotted crake (''Porzana porzana'') as the type species. The genus unites the typical "crakes" found essentially anywhere in the world except desert and polar regions. It contains 3 living species. In addition, a large number of prehistorically extinct species known only from fossil or subfossil remains have been discovered. The genera ''Coturnicops'', '' Crex'' (including ''Crecopsis'') and ''Laterallus'' have been suggested to be closely related. However, molecular phylogenetic analyses have confirmed the suspicion, raised in the late 20th century in the first cladistic studies of morphology, that the "genus" ''Porzana'' is rather an evolutionary grade, consisting of an asse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by their inhabitants as comprising the entire world, with the "New World", a term for the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas. Etymology In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. These regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they have a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moulting
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer layer or covering), either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle. In medieval times it was also known as "mewing" (from the French verb "muer", to moult), a term that lives on in the name of Britain's Royal Mews where the King's hawks used to be kept during moulting time before becoming horse stables after Tudor times. Moulting can involve shedding the Epidermis (skin), epidermis (skin), pelage (hair, feathers, fur, wool), or other external layer. In some groups, other body parts may be shed, for example, the entire exoskeleton in arthropods, including the wings in some insects. Examples In birds In birds, moulting is the periodic replacement of feathers by shedding old feathers while producing new o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species have subspecies, but for those that do there must be at least two. Subspecies is abbreviated subsp. or ssp. and the singular and plural forms are the same ("the subspecies is" or "the subspecies are"). In zoology, under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the subspecies is the only taxonomic rank below that of species that can receive a name. In botany and mycology, under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, other infraspecific ranks, such as variety, may be named. In bacteriology and virology, under standard bacterial nomenclature and virus nomenclature, there are recommendations but not strict requirements for recognizing other important infraspecific ranks. A taxonomist decides whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight Feather
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail are called rectrices (), singular rectrix (). The primary function of the flight feathers is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift (force), lift, thereby enabling bird flight, flight. The flight feathers of some birds have evolved to perform additional functions, generally associated with territorial displays, courtship rituals or feeding methods. In some species, these feathers have developed into long showy plumes used in visual courtship displays, while in others they create a sound during display flights. Tiny serrations on the leading edge of their remiges help owls to fly silently (and therefore hunt more successfully), while the extra-stiff rectrices of woodpeckers help them to brace against tree trunks as they hammer on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chambers Dictionary
The ''Chambers Dictionary'' (''TCD'') was first published by William and Robert Chambers as ''Chambers's English Dictionary'' in 1872. It was an expanded version of ''Chambers's Etymological Dictionary'' of 1867, compiled by James Donald. A second edition came out in 1898, and was followed in 1901 by a new compact edition called ''Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary''. ''TCD'' is widely used by British crossword solvers and setters, and by ''Scrabble'' players (though it is no longer the official ''Scrabble'' dictionary). It contains many more dialectal, archaic, unconventional and eccentric words than its rivals, and is noted for its occasional wryly humorous definitions. Examples of such definitions include those for ''éclair'' ("a cake, long in shape but short in duration") and ''middle-aged'' ("between youth and old age, variously reckoned to suit the reckoner"). These jocular definitions were removed by the publisher in the 1970s, but many of them were reinstated in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rouget's Rail
Rouget's rail (''Rougetius rougetii'') is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Rougetius''. It is found in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Habitat Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, rivers, swamps, freshwater marshes, pastureland, rural gardens, and urban areas. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby .... Gallery File:Rouget's Rail2.jpg, Rouget's rail in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia File:Rail1.jpg, Rouget's rail in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia References Rallidae Birds of the Horn of Africa Birds described in 1843 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Gruiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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