Definitions

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  • noun Plural form of manakin.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Similar to how a cricket chirps by rubbing together sound-making apparatus in its hind legs, male club-winged manakins (Machaeropterus deliciosus) use specially adapted feathers in each wing to make a violinlike hum, a Cornell University animal behaviorist Kimberly Bostwick writes in Science magazine (July 29, 2005).

    Science 2005

  • Club-winged manakins rub specialized feathers behind their backs to impress mates with a violin-like sound, researchers report.

    July 29th, 2005 curufea 2005

  • It is very active both on its wings and feet, and makes a whirring sound while flying, something like the South American manakins.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • It eats hard stone-bearing fruits as large as a gooseberry, and often flutters its wings after the manner of the South American manakins, at which time it elevates and expands the beautiful fans with which its breast is adorned.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • Bright little manakins of a vivid green were there, so feathered that they put me in mind of the rich orange cock-of-the-rocks that Uncle Dick had brought over from Central America.

    Nat the Naturalist A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas George Manville Fenn 1870

  • In some of the little manakins of Brazil, two or three of the wing-feathers are curiously shaped and stiffened in the male, so that the bird is able to produce with them a peculiar snapping or cracking sound; and the tail-feathers of several species of snipe are so narrowed as to produce distinct drumming, whistling, or switching sounds when the birds descend rapidly from a great height.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • It eats hard stone-bearing fruits as large as a gooseberry, and often flutters its wings after the manner of the South American manakins, at which time it elevates and expands the beautiful fans with which its breast is adorned.

    The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 2 Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • Next to the manakins, are the Indian, African, and

    How to See the British Museum in Four Visits W. Blanchard Jerrold 1855

  • The plumes worn by the Guipunaves* are the most celebrated; being composed of the fine feathers of manakins and parrots.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • The gallitos, or rock-manakins, are sold at Pararuma in pretty little cages made of the footstalks of palm-leaves.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

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