MANAKIN, from the Dutch word Manne7en, applied to certain small birds, a name apparently introduced into English by Edwards (Vat. Mist. Birds, i. p. 21) in or about 1743, since which time it has been accepted generally, and is now used for those which form the Family Pipridiz of modern ornithologists. The Manakins are peculiar to the Neotropical Region, and are said to have many of the habits of the Titmouse Family (Paridx), living, says Swainson, in deep forests, associating in small bands, and keeping continually in motion, but feeding almost wholly on the large soft berries of the different kinds of Melastoma. However, as with most other South American Passerine birds, little is really known of their mode of life; and it is certain that the Pipridx have no close affinity with the Paridx,1 but belong to the other great division of the Order Passeres, to which Garrod assigned the name 13fesomyodi, and in that division, according to the same authority, constitute, with the GotingidLe,2 the group Ileteromeri (Proc. Zool. Society, 1876, p. 518). The Manakins are nearly all birds of gay appearance, generally exhibiting rich tints of blue, crimson, scarlet, orange, or yellow in combination with chestnut, deep black, black and white, or olive green ; and among their most obvious characteristics are their short bill and feeble feet, of which the outer toe is united to the middle toe for a good part of its length. The tail, in most species very short, has in others the middle feathers much elongated, and in one the outer rectrices are attenuated and produced into threads. They have been divided by various authors into upwards of twenty so-called genera ; but Messrs Sclater and Salvin (Nomenclalor, pp. 53-55) recognize only fifteen, though admitting sixty species, of which fifteen belong to the genus Pipe as now restricted, the P. leucocilla of Linnmus being its type. This species has a wide distribution from the isthmus of Panama to Guiana and the valley of the Amazon ; but it is one of the most plainly coloured of the Family, being black with a white head. The genus Machwropterus, consisting of four species, is very remarkable for the extraordinary form of some of the secondary wing-feathers in the males, in which the shaft is thickened and the webs changed in shape, as described and illustrated by Mr Sclater (Proc. Zoos. Society, 1860, p. 90 ; Ibis, 1862, p. 1753) in the case of the beautiful 3f. deliciosus, and it has been observed that the wing-bones of these birds are also much thickened, no doubt in correlation with this abnormal structure. A like deviation from the ordinary character is found in the allied genus Hanacus or CkiromackLEris, comprehending six species, and that gentleman believes it enables them to make the singular noise for which they have long been noted (see BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 770), described by Mr Salvin (This, 1860, p. 37) in the case of one of them, M. candwi, as beginning "with a sharp note not unlike the crack of a whip," which is "followed by a rattling sound not unlike the call of a landrail " ; and it is a similar habit that has obtained for another species, M. edwardsi, the name in Cayenne, accord ing to Buffon (Mist. Nat. Oiseaux, iv. p. 413), of Cassenoisette. This view is supported by Mr Layard, who, writing of the last species, says (Ibis, 1873, p. 384). - "They make a curious rattling noise (I suspect, by some movement of the oddly shaped wing-feathers), which constantly betrays their presence in the forests," while of the congeneric M yutturosus, Mr J. F. Hamilton remarks (Ibis, 1871, p. 305)--" The first intimation given of the presence of one of these birds is a sharp whirring sound very like that of a child's small wooden rattle, followed by two or three sharp snaps." The same observer adds (loc. cit.) of a member of the kindred genus Chiroxiphia, containing fivo species, that C. candela is known to the Brazilians as the Fandango-bird from its "habit of performing a dance." They say that "one perches upon a branch and the others arrange themselves in a circle round it, dancing up and down on their perches to the music sung [1] by the centre one." Exception must be taken to this story so far as regards the mode in which the " music " is produced, for these birds have no true song-muscles ; but the effect is doubtless as described by Mr Hamilton's informant. (A. N.)