The Birdwatcher's Dictionary

The Birdwatcher's Dictionary PDF Author: Peter Weaver
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408138522
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The author defines more than 1100 words and terms in this illustrated dictionary for the birdwatcher. Its attraction for the relative novice is obvious but it is equally directed to experienced birdwatchers who will find succinct definitions of terms that are new to them and of others that they have understood none too well. Among the appendices is a full list of species on the British and Irish List arranged in 'Voous Order' and with categories of status in Britain and Ireland. Whatever the user's ornithological expertise, the book will expand or confirm his or her knowledge and offer at the same time an absorbing and entertaining browse, as a good dictionary should.

The Birdwatcher's Dictionary

The Birdwatcher's Dictionary PDF Author: Peter Weaver
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408138522
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
The author defines more than 1100 words and terms in this illustrated dictionary for the birdwatcher. Its attraction for the relative novice is obvious but it is equally directed to experienced birdwatchers who will find succinct definitions of terms that are new to them and of others that they have understood none too well. Among the appendices is a full list of species on the British and Irish List arranged in 'Voous Order' and with categories of status in Britain and Ireland. Whatever the user's ornithological expertise, the book will expand or confirm his or her knowledge and offer at the same time an absorbing and entertaining browse, as a good dictionary should.

The Dictionary of American Bird Names

The Dictionary of American Bird Names PDF Author: Ernest Alfred Choate
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780876451175
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Explains the etymological origins of birds' English common names, along with scientific counterparts.

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds PDF Author: Bo Beolens
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147298269X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 626

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Book Description
A comprehensive dictionary listing all the people whose names are commemorated in the English and scientific names of birds. Birdwatchers often come across bird names that include a person's name, either in the vernacular (English) name or latinised in the scientific nomenclature. Such names are properly called eponyms, and few people will not have been curious as to who some of these people were (or are). Names such as Darwin, Wallace, Audubon, Gould and (Gilbert) White are well known to most people. Keener birders will have yearned to see Pallas's Warbler, Hume's Owl, Swainson's Thrush, Steller's Eider or Brünnich's Guillemot. But few people today will have even heard of Albertina's Myna, Barraband's Parrot, Guerin's Helmetcrest or Savigny's Eagle Owl. This extraordinary work lists more than 4,000 eponymous names covering 10,000 genera, species and subspecies of birds. Every taxon with an eponymous vernacular or scientific name (whether in current usage or not) is listed, followed by a concise biography of the person concerned. These entries vary in length from a few lines to several paragraphs, depending on the availability of information or the importance of the individual's legacy. The text is punctuated with intriguing or little-known facts, unearthed in the course of the authors' extensive research. Ornithologists will find this an invaluable reference, especially to sort out birds named after people with identical surnames or in situations where only a person's forenames are used. But all birders will find much of interest in this fascinating volume, a book to dip into time and time again whenever their curiosity is aroused.

Dictionary of Birds of the United States

Dictionary of Birds of the United States PDF Author: Joel Ellis Holloway
Publisher: Timber Press (OR)
ISBN: 9780881926002
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Bird afficionados will be delighted with the more than 900 entries-all the resident birds of the 50 states are included, as well as escaped, exotic, and rare visitors.

Word by Word

Word by Word PDF Author: Kory Stamper
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 110197026X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.” With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.

Latin for Bird Lovers

Latin for Bird Lovers PDF Author: Roger Lederer
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN: 9781604695465
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
While Latin is officially an "ancient" language, it's useful in so many areas of modern life, including bird watching. Birdwatchers need a universal language when they're speaking about birds, since common names vary by region. Latin for Bird Lovers answers this call, introducing more than 3,000 words to describe birds. Packed with tips on using Latin to identify birds by color, size, and behavior, this gorgeously illustrated, informative guide is perfect for birdwatchers, nature lovers, and both experts and beginners in ornithology and etymology.

The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians

The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians PDF Author: Bo Beolens
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing
ISBN: 1907807446
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
New species of animal and plant are being discovered all the time. When this happens, the new species has to be given a scientific, Latin name in addition to any common, vernacular name. In either case the species may be named after a person, often the discoverer but sometimes an individual they wished to honour or perhaps were staying with at the time the discovery was made. Species names related to a person are ‘eponyms’. Many scientific names are allusive, esoteric and even humorous, so an eponym dictionary is a valuable resource for anyone, amateur or professional, who wants to decipher the meaning and glimpse the history of a species name. Sometimes a name refers not to a person but to a fictional character or mythological figure. The Forest Stubfoot Toad Atelopus farci is named after the FARC, a Colombian guerrilla army who found refuge in the toad’s habitat and thereby, it is claimed, protected it. Hoipollo's Bubble-nest Frog Pseudophilautus hoipolloi was named after the Greek for ‘the many’, but someone assumed the reference was to a Dr Hoipollo. Meanwhile, the man who has everything will never refuse an eponym: Sting's Treefrog Dendropsophus stingi is named after the rock musician, in honour of his ‘commitment and efforts to save the rainforest’. Following the success of their Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles, the authors have joined forces to give amphibians a similar treatment. They have tracked down 1,609 honoured individuals and composed for each a brief, pithy biography. In some cases these are a reminder of the courage of scientists whose dedicated research in remote locations exposed them to disease and even violent death. The eponym ensures that their memory will survive, aided by reference works such as this highly readable dictionary. Altogether 2,668 amphibians are listed.

Bird Talk

Bird Talk PDF Author: Lita Judge
Publisher: Flash Point
ISBN: 1466808683
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
A gorgeously illustrated tribute to birds of all kinds and the fantastic, funny, fascinating things that they do. Birds have lots of ways of communicating: They sing and talk, dance and drum, cuddle and fight. But what does all of the bird talk mean? Filled with gorgeous illustrations, this fascinating picture book takes a look at the secret life of birds in a child-friendly format that is sure to appeal to readers of all ages - whether they're die-hard bird-watchers or just curious about the creatures in their own backyards.

Aaaaw to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds

Aaaaw to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds PDF Author: John Bevis
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262288958
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
The distinctive and amazing songs and calls of birds: a meditation and a lexicon. “A miraculous little book: a compressed encyclopedia of our fascination with avifauna.” —The Nation “A charming, funny, and eccentric book.” —Times Literary Supplement “An elegant tribute to the beauty of its subject.” —Los Angeles Times Birds sing and call, sometimes in complex and beautiful arrangements of notes, sometimes in one-line repetitions that resemble a ringtone more than a symphony. Listening, we are stirred, transported, and even envious of birds' ability to produce what Shelley called “profuse strains of unpremeditated art.” And for hundreds of years, we have tried to write down what we hear when birds sing. Poets have put birdsong in verse (Thomas Nashe: “Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo”) and ornithologists have transcribed bird sounds more methodically. Drawing on this history of bird writing, in Aaaaw to Zzzzzd John Bevis offers a lexicon of the words of birds. For tourists in Birdland, there could be no more charming phrasebook. Consulting it, we find seven distinct variations of “hoo” attributed to seven different species of owls, from a simple hoo to the more ambitious hoo hoo hoo-hoo, ho hoo hoo-hoo; the understated cheet of the tree swallow; the resonant kreeaaaaaaaaaaar of the Swainson's hawk; the modest peep peep peep of the meadow pipit. We learn that some people hear the Baltimore oriole saying “here, here, come right here, dear” and the yellowhammer saying “a little bit of bread and no cheese.” Bevis, a poet, frames his lexicons—one for North America and one for Britain and northern Europe—with an evocative appreciation of birds, birdsong, and human attempts to capture the words of birds in music and poetry. He also offers an engaging account of other methods of documenting birdsong—field recording, graphic notation, and mechanical devices including duck calls and the serinette, an instrument used to teach song tunes to songbirds. The singing of birds is nature at its most sublime, and words are our medium for expressing this sublimity. Aaaaw to Zzzzzd belongs in the bird lover's backpack and on the word lover's bedside table, an unexpected and sui generis pleasure.

Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book

Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book PDF Author: Bill Oddie
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1910232203
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
'Bird-watchers are tense, competitive, selfish, shifty, dishonest, distrusting, boorish, pedantic, unsentimental, arrogant and – above all – envious'. So says Bill Oddie, and he should know! It's a tough environment out there on marsh and moorland, and this scurrilous little classic is a must for all devoted birders and twitchers (and as Bill relates, there is a mighty difference!). With years of hard-earned experience, Bill dares to say all the things that other b's and t's will recognize as true but which they have never dared to own up or admit to, even to themselves. Whether discussing the birds he's seen, the birds that got away, equipment, apparel, sightings, cock-ups, places to visit or people to avoid, Bill's enthusiasm is infectious, and his knowledge unsurpassed. This little black book is one item that no serious birdwatcher can afford to leave out of the rucksack, and it will prove an essential companion when trudging the estuaries and riverbanks, in torrential rain and gusty gale in search of that elusive rare beauty.