[...]... respectively in the grebes (FAMILY Podicipedidae) and the gulls (family Laridae) In addition to the truly aquatic (swimming) birds, there are many RIPARIAN types ADAPTATION Atrophy 15 Aquiline Of eagles (FAMILY Accipitridae), or 'eagle-like' Arboreal Connected with trees Arena See LEK Arm The section of the wing between the body and the CARPAL JOINT, the rest of the wing constituting the HAND The bones of the. .. publishes the quarterly 'Avicultural Magazine' Avifauna The birds found in a particular area, or a description of them The 'arm-pit' of a bird, where the underwing joins the body The feathers of this region are called the 'axillaries', and in a few SP ECIE S their colour can be an aid to identification, for example, black in the case of the Grey Plover Plu'Oialis squatarola Axilla Axillary (feather) See... ORNITHOLOGY and by the ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 30 Cheek Cheek See MALAR REGION Chin The part of a bird's exterior immediately below the bill and above the THROAT Chipping The breaking of the eggshell prior to hatching The first sign is the appearance of cracks radiating from the point of the first breakthrough ('starring') The chick then enlarges the cracks with its EGG TOOTH An egg... AXILLA Back The part of a bird's exterior between the MANTLE and the thus the middle part of the bird's upper surface RUMP, Balearic Shearwater The SUBSPECIES of the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus breeding in the Balearic Islands It has the SCIENTIFIC NAME P.p mauretanicus, the British breeding subspecies being P.p puffinus 18 Banding The Balearic subspecies is a regular autumn visitor to the English... of the noise produced by blowing sharply across the mouth of an empty bottle Booted See SCUTELLATE(n) Boreal Having a northerly DISTRIBUTION or, more specifically, occurring in the region covered by the BOREAL FOREST Boreal Forest The great belt of CONIFEROUS trees which stretches right across the northern continents to the south of the zone of Arctic TUNDRA It is often called the 'taiga' Birds of the. .. called the 'gut' or 'alimentary canal', along which food passes and is gradually digested The gut begins at the mouth and its main sections are the OESOPHAGUS (with or without a CROP), the GIZZARD and the INTESTINE, ending at the CLOACA Included in the alimentary system are the liver (which produces bile among other functions) and the pancreas (which produces digestive juices and insulin) Allen's Rule The. .. before the young bird is free of the shell Chitinous Made of the hard horny substance ('chitin') of which the external skeletons of insects are composed A bird PELLET may contain chitinous fragments from the insects which have been eaten Chord The distance between the CARPAL JOINT and the tip of the longest PRIMARY (FEATHER), measured with the wing folded and pressed flat Chromatic aberration The occurrence... into the catching area, the net is released and is thus thrown over the birds In catching birds for RINGING, clap nets can be useful where the birds feed on the ground out in the open, as with WADER flocks on the shore A much larger-scale development of the clap net is the ROCKET NET Class The division in TAXONOMY which stands between the and the ORDER All birds are placed in the class Aves Classification... refers to the Whinehat Saxicola rubetra and the Stonechat S torquato, but it may be more loosely applied to cover such birds as the Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus and the Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe Check list A list of SP EC I E S with space provided so that they can be ticked off as they are seen Check lists are published by the journal BRITISH BIRDS, by the BRITISH TRUST FOR ORNITHOLOGY and by the ROYAL... Abdomen The rear section of the body, containing the REPRODUCTIVE and the major part of the ALIMENTARY SYSTEM The other body divisions are the head and the THORAX SYSTEM Aberrant Abnormal or unusual An aberrant individual is one which in some way is not typical of its SPEe I E s, for example one showing features of ALBINISM The Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus can be described as aberrant from the 'true' . See LEK. Arm The section of the wing between the body and the CARPAL JOINT, the rest of the wing constituting the HAND. The bones of the arm are the HUMERUS, RADIUS and. will turn the pages. WHAT IS IN THE BOOK There are two sections, the dictionary and the appendices, the latter forming a short supplement. The dictionary