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124-619: Toucans ( / ˈ t uː k æ n / , UK : /- k ə n / ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae . The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the Toucan barbets . They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills . The family includes five genera and over 40 different species . Toucans are arboreal and typically lay two to four white eggs in their nests. They make their nests in tree hollows and holes excavated by other animals such as woodpeckers —the toucan bill has very limited use as an excavation tool. When

248-576: A West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. The resident population at this time was generally speaking Common Brittonic —the insular variety of Continental Celtic , which was influenced by the Roman occupation. This group of languages ( Welsh , Cornish , Cumbric ) cohabited alongside English into

372-421: A "net", helping in the capture of flying prey, although to date, there has been no empirical evidence to support this idea. There is some experimental evidence to suggest that they may prevent particles from striking the eyes if, for example, a prey item is missed or broken apart on contact. They may also help to protect the eyes from particles encountered in flight, or from casual contact from vegetation. There

496-542: A bird; the orangeness of a Montagu's harrier 's cere, for example, correlates to its body mass and physical condition. The cere color of young Eurasian scops-owls has an ultraviolet (UV) component, with a UV peak that correlates to the bird's mass. A chick with a lower body mass has a UV peak at a higher wavelength than a chick with a higher body mass does. Studies have shown that parent owls preferentially feed chicks with ceres that show higher wavelength UV peaks, that is, lighter-weight chicks. The color or appearance of

620-559: A century as Received Pronunciation (RP). However, due to language evolution and changing social trends, some linguists argue that RP is losing prestige or has been replaced by another accent, one that the linguist Geoff Lindsey for instance calls Standard Southern British English. Others suggest that more regionally-oriented standard accents are emerging in England. Even in Scotland and Northern Ireland, RP exerts little influence in

744-415: A complex three-dimensional network of bony spicules (or trabeculae ) seated in soft connective tissue and surrounded by the hard outer layers of the beak. The avian jaw apparatus is made up of two units: one four-bar linkage mechanism and one five-bar linkage mechanism. The upper mandible is supported by a three-pronged bone called the intermaxillary. The upper prong of this bone is embedded into

868-436: A dozen types of carotenoids are responsible for the coloration of most red, orange, and yellow beaks. The hue of the color is determined by the precise mix of red and yellow pigments, while the saturation is determined by the density of the deposited pigments. For example, bright red is created by dense deposits of mostly red pigments, while dull yellow is created by diffuse deposits of mostly yellow pigments. Bright orange

992-410: A few days of hatching, though petrels keep theirs for nearly three weeks and marbled murrelets have theirs for up to a month. Generally, the egg tooth drops off, though in songbirds it is resorbed. The color of a bird's beak results from concentrations of pigments — primarily melanins and carotenoids — in the epidermal layers, including the rhamphotheca. Eumelanin , which is found in

1116-508: A greater movement, normally [əʊ], [əʉ] or [əɨ]. Dropping a morphological grammatical number , in collective nouns , is stronger in British English than North American English. This is to treat them as plural when once grammatically singular, a perceived natural number prevails, especially when applying to institutional nouns and groups of people. The noun 'police', for example, undergoes this treatment: Police are investigating

1240-543: A large hole. The weakened egg eventually shatters under the pressure of the bird's movements. The egg tooth is so critical to a successful escape from the egg that chicks of most species will perish unhatched if they fail to develop one. However, there are a few species which do not have egg teeth. Megapode chicks have an egg tooth while still in the egg but lose it before hatching, while kiwi chicks never develop one; chicks of both families escape their eggs by kicking their way out. Most chicks lose their egg teeth within

1364-513: A large squirming frog) have very wide nails. Certain types of mechanoreceptors , nerve cells that are sensitive to pressure, vibration, or touch, are located under the nail. The shape or color of the nail can sometimes be used to help distinguish between similar-looking species or between various ages of waterfowl. For example, the greater scaup has a wider black nail than does the very similar lesser scaup . Juvenile " grey geese " have dark nails, while most adults have pale nails. The nail gave

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1488-512: A less vivid gape. Conversely, the red gape of the common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ) did not induce extra feeding in host parents. Some brood parasites , such as the Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo ( C. fugax ), have colored patches on the wing that mimic the gape color of the parasitized species. When born, the chick's gape flanges are fleshy. As it grows into a fledgling , the gape flanges remain somewhat swollen and can thus be used to recognize that

1612-406: A lesser class or social status and often discounted or considered of a low intelligence. Another contribution to the standardisation of British English was the introduction of the printing press to England in the mid-15th century. In doing so, William Caxton enabled a common language and spelling to be dispersed among the entirety of England at a much faster rate. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of

1736-496: A membraneous, horny or cartilaginous flap. In diving birds, the operculum keeps water out of the nasal cavity; when the birds dive, the impact force of the water closes the operculum. Some species which feed on flowers have opercula to help to keep pollen from clogging their nasal passages, while the opercula of the two species of Attagis seedsnipe help to keep dust out. The nares of nestling tawny frogmouths are covered with large dome-shaped opercula, which help to reduce

1860-492: A part of their partner's beak while others clash their beaks vigorously together. Gannets raise their bills high and repeatedly clatter them, the male puffin nibbles at the female's beak, the male waxwing puts his bill in the female's mouth and ravens hold each other's beaks in a prolonged "kiss". Billing can also be used as a gesture of appeasement or subordination. Subordinate Canada jay routinely bill more dominant birds, lowering their body and quivering their wings in

1984-416: A particular bird is young. By the time it reaches adulthood, the gape flanges will no longer be visible. Most species of birds have external nares ( nostrils ) located somewhere on their beak. The nares are two holes—circular, oval or slit-like in shape—which lead to the nasal cavities within the bird's skull, and thus to the rest of the respiratory system . In most bird species, the nares are located in

2108-669: A particularly large fruiting tree. Toucans often spend time sparring with their bills, tag-chasing, and calling during the long time it takes for fruit to digest. These behaviours may be related to maintenance of the pair bond or establishing dominance hierarchies, but the time required to digest fruit, which can be up to 75 minutes and during which the toucan can not feed, provides this time for socializing. Toucans are primarily frugivorous (fruit eating), but are opportunistically omnivorous and will take prey such as insects , smaller birds , and small lizards . Captive toucans have been reported to hunt insects actively in their cages, and it

2232-659: A process called T-glottalisation . National media, being based in London, have seen the glottal stop spreading more widely than it once was in word endings, not being heard as "no [ʔ] " and bottle of water being heard as "bo [ʔ] le of wa [ʔ] er". It is still stigmatised when used at the beginning and central positions, such as later , while often has all but regained /t/ . Other consonants subject to this usage in Cockney English are p , as in pa [ʔ] er and k as in ba [ʔ] er. In most areas of England and Wales, outside

2356-404: A reddish or orangish gonydeal spot near the gonydeal expansion. This spot triggers begging behavior in gull chicks. The chick pecks at the spot on its parent's bill, which in turn stimulates the parent to regurgitate food. Depending on its use, commissure may refer to the junction of the upper and lower mandibles, or alternately, to the full-length apposition of the closed mandibles, from

2480-531: A reduced premaxillary bone due to the overdevelopment of the prenasal cartilage, which takes up more mesenchymal cells for cartilage, instead of bone, formation. Different species' beaks have evolved according to their diet; for example, raptors have sharp-pointed beaks that facilitate dissection and biting off of prey animals ' tissue, whereas passerine birds that specialize in eating seeds with especially tough shells (such as grosbeaks and cardinals ) have large, stout beaks with high compressive power (on

2604-520: A regional accent or dialect. However, about 2% of Britons speak with an accent called Received Pronunciation (also called "the King's English", "Oxford English" and " BBC English" ), that is essentially region-less. It derives from a mixture of the Midlands and Southern dialects spoken in London in the early modern period. It is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. In

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2728-449: A secreted protein also known to be expressed in mammalian craniofacial development. The combination of these signals determines beak growth along the length, depth, and width axes. Reduced expression of TGFβllr significantly decreased the depth and length of chicken embryonic beak due to the underdevelopment of the premaxillary bone. Contrarily, an increase in Bmp4 signaling would result in

2852-456: A small sharp, calcified projection on their beak, which they use to chip their way out of their egg . Commonly known as an egg tooth, this white spike is generally near the tip of the upper mandible, though some species have one near the tip of their lower mandible instead, and a few species have one on each mandible. Despite its name, the projection is not an actual tooth , as the similarly-named projections of some reptiles are; instead, it

2976-405: A strong correlation with summer temperatures recorded in the locations where the sparrows breed; latitude alone showed a much weaker correlation. By dumping excess heat through their bills, the sparrows are able to avoid the water loss which would be required by evaporative cooling—an important benefit in a windy habitat where freshwater is scarce. Several ratites , including the common ostrich ,

3100-648: A toucan is the mascot of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party ; its party members are called tucanos for this reason. Toucans have also been used in popular media. They have been used as the principal characters in Toucan Tecs , a 1992 UK television cartoon about two detectives named Zippi and Zac. In Dora the Explorer , the character Señor Túcan is a Spanish-speaking toucan who occasionally gives Dora and her friends advice. Tuca,

3224-463: A waxy structure called a cere (from the Latin cera , which means "wax") or ceroma which covers the base of their bill. This structure typically contains the nares , except in the owls, where the nares are distal to the cere. Although it is sometimes feathered in parrots, the cere is typically bare and often brightly colored. In raptors, the cere is a sexual signal which indicates the "quality" of

3348-404: A woodpecker's nares help to keep wood particles from clogging its nasal passages. Species in the bird order Procellariformes have nostrils enclosed in double tubes which sit atop or along the sides of the upper mandible. These species, which include the albatrosses, petrels, diving petrels, storm petrels, fulmars and shearwaters, are widely known as "tubenoses". A number of species, including

3472-453: Is a selection pressure for an intermediate amount of overhang. Western Scrub Jays who had more symmetrical bills (i.e. those with less of an overhang), were found to have higher amounts of lice when tested. The same pattern has been seen in surveys of Peruvian birds. Additionally, because of the role beaks play in preening, this is evidence for coevolution of the beak overhang morphology and body morphology of parasites. Artificially removing

3596-725: Is also due to London-centric influences. Examples of R-dropping are car and sugar , where the R is not pronounced. British dialects differ on the extent of diphthongisation of long vowels, with southern varieties extensively turning them into diphthongs, and with northern dialects normally preserving many of them. As a comparison, North American varieties could be said to be in-between. Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are usually preserved, and in several areas also /oː/ and /eː/, as in go and say (unlike other varieties of English, that change them to [oʊ] and [eɪ] respectively). Some areas go as far as not diphthongising medieval /iː/ and /uː/, that give rise to modern /aɪ/ and /aʊ/; that is, for example, in

3720-487: Is also evidence that the rictal bristles of some species may function tactilely, in a manner similar to that of mammalian whiskers ( vibrissae ). Studies have shown that Herbst corpuscles , mechanoreceptors sensitive to pressure and vibration, are found in association with rictal bristles. They may help with prey detection, with navigation in darkened nest cavities, with the gathering of information during flight or with prey handling. Full-term chicks of most bird species have

3844-452: Is based on British English, but has more influence from American English , often grouped together due to their close proximity. British English, for example, is the closest English to Indian English, but Indian English has extra vocabulary and some English words are assigned different meanings. Beak Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, they share a similar underlying structure. Two bony projections –

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3968-501: Is created by dense deposits of both red and yellow pigments, in roughly equal concentrations. Beak coloration helps to make displays using those beaks more obvious. In general, beak color depends on a combination of the bird's hormonal state and diet . Colors are typically brightest as the breeding season approaches, and palest after breeding. Birds are capable of seeing colors in the ultraviolet range, and some species are known to have ultraviolet peaks of reflectance (indicating

4092-527: Is derived from the Tupi word tukana or the Guaraní word tukã , via Portuguese . The family includes toucans, aracaris and toucanets; more distant relatives include various families of barbets and woodpeckers in the suborder Pici . The phylogenetic relationship between the toucans and the eight other families in the order Piciformes is shown in the cladogram below. The number of species in each family

4216-795: Is included in style guides issued by various publishers including The Times newspaper, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press . The Oxford University Press guidelines were originally drafted as a single broadsheet page by Horace Henry Hart, and were at the time (1893) the first guide of their type in English; they were gradually expanded and eventually published, first as Hart's Rules , and in 2002 as part of The Oxford Manual of Style . Comparable in authority and stature to The Chicago Manual of Style for published American English ,

4340-422: Is known that they eat mostly fruit. Researchers have discovered that the large bill of the toucan is a highly efficient thermoregulation system, though its size may still be advantageous in other ways. It does aid in their feeding behavior (as they sit in one spot and reach for all fruit in range, thereby reducing energy expenditure), and it has also been theorized that the bill may intimidate smaller birds, so that

4464-601: Is one of the few species of mammals to use electroreception . The beaks of aquatic birds contain Grandry corpuscles , which assist in velocity detection while filter feeding. The beak of birds plays a role in removing skin parasites ( ectoparasites ) such as lice. It is mainly the tip of the beak that does this. Studies have shown that inserting a bit to stop birds from using the tip results in increased parasite loads in pigeons. Birds that have naturally deformed beaks have also been noted to have higher levels of parasites. It

4588-449: Is part of the integumentary system , as are claws and scales . The hatching chick first uses its egg tooth to break the membrane around an air chamber at the wide end of the egg. Then it pecks at the eggshell while turning slowly within the egg, eventually (over a period of hours or days) creating a series of small circular fractures in the shell. Once it has breached the egg's surface, the chick continues to chip at it until it has made

4712-567: Is possible to keep toucans on an insect-only diet. They also plunder nests of smaller birds, taking eggs and nestlings. This probably provides a crucial addition of protein to their diet. Certainly, apart from being systematically predatory as well as frugivorous, like many omnivorous birds, they particularly prefer animal food for feeding their chicks. However, in their range, toucans are the dominant frugivores, and as such, play an extremely important ecological role as vectors for seed dispersal of fruiting trees. Toucans nest in cavities in trees, and

4836-670: Is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill , Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Galbulidae – jacamars (18 species) Bucconidae – puffbirds (38 species) Indicatoridae – honeyguides (16 species) Picidae – woodpeckers (240 species) Megalaimidae – Asian barbets (35 species) Lybiidae – African barbets (42 species) Capitonidae – New World barbets (15 species) Semnornithidae – toucan barbets (2 species) Ramphastidae – toucans (43 species) Toucans range in size from

4960-538: Is thought that the overhang at the end of the top portion of the beak (that is the portion that begins to curve downwards) slides against the lower beak to crush parasites. This overhang of the beak is thought to be under stabilising natural selection . Very long beaks are thought to be selected against because they are prone to a higher number of breaks, as has been demonstrated in rock pigeons. Beaks with no overhang would be unable to effectively remove and kill ectoparasites as mentioned above. Studies have supported there

5084-435: Is typically a septum made of bone or cartilage that separates the two nares, but in some families (including gulls, cranes and New World vultures), the septum is missing. While the nares are uncovered in most species, they are covered with feathers in a few groups of birds, including grouse and ptarmigans, crows, and some woodpeckers. The feathers over a ptarmigan's nostrils help to warm the air it inhales, while those over

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5208-547: The Chambers Dictionary , and the Collins Dictionary record actual usage rather than attempting to prescribe it. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time; words are freely borrowed from other languages and other varieties of English, and neologisms are frequent. For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the ninth century, the form of language spoken in London and

5332-658: The East Midlands became standard English within the Court, and ultimately became the basis for generally accepted use in the law, government, literature and education in Britain. The standardisation of British English is thought to be from both dialect levelling and a thought of social superiority. Speaking in the Standard dialect created class distinctions; those who did not speak the standard English would be considered of

5456-493: The Royal Spanish Academy with Spanish. Standard British English differs notably in certain vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation features from standard American English and certain other standard English varieties around the world. British and American spelling also differ in minor ways. The accent, or pronunciation system, of standard British English, based in southeastern England, has been known for over

5580-490: The Scots language or Scottish Gaelic ). Each group includes a range of dialects, some markedly different from others. The various British dialects also differ in the words that they have borrowed from other languages. Around the middle of the 15th century, there were points where within the 5 major dialects there were almost 500 ways to spell the word though . Following its last major survey of English Dialects (1949–1950),

5704-708: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England , or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English , Welsh English , and Northern Irish English . Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all

5828-573: The University of Leeds has started work on a new project. In May 2007 the Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded a grant to Leeds to study British regional dialects. The team are sifting through a large collection of examples of regional slang words and phrases turned up by the "Voices project" run by the BBC , in which they invited the public to send in examples of English still spoken throughout

5952-610: The West Country and other near-by counties of the UK, the consonant R is not pronounced if not followed by a vowel, lengthening the preceding vowel instead. This phenomenon is known as non-rhoticity . In these same areas, a tendency exists to insert an R between a word ending in a vowel and a next word beginning with a vowel. This is called the intrusive R . It could be understood as a merger, in that words that once ended in an R and words that did not are no longer treated differently. This

6076-701: The emu and the southern cassowary , use various bare parts of their bodies (including their beaks) to dissipate as much as 40% of their metabolic heat production. Alternately, studies have shown that birds from colder climates (higher altitudes or latitudes and lower environmental temperatures) have smaller beaks, lessening heat loss from that structure. During courtship, mated pairs of many bird species touch or clasp each other's bills. Termed billing (also nebbing in British English), this behavior appears to strengthen pair bonding . The amount of contact involved varies among species. Some gently touch only

6200-572: The falcons , have a small bony tubercule which projects from their nares. The function of this tubercule is unknown. Some scientists suggest it may act as a baffle, slowing down or diffusing airflow into the nares (and thus allowing the bird to continue breathing without damaging its respiratory system) during high-speed dives, but this theory has not been proved experimentally. Not all species that fly at high speeds have such tubercules, while some species which fly at low speeds do. The nares of some birds are covered by an operculum (plural opercula ),

6324-523: The lettered aracari ( Pteroglossus inscriptus ), at 130 g (4.6 oz) and 29 cm (11 in), to the toco toucan ( Ramphastos toco ), at 680 g (1.50 lb) and 63 cm (25 in). Their bodies are short (of comparable size to a crow's ) and compact. The tail is rounded and varies in length, from half the length to the whole length of the body. The neck is short and thick. The wings are small, as they are forest-dwelling birds who only need to travel short distances, and are often of about

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6448-548: The noisy miner , use bill clapping as a form of communication. Some woodpecker species are known to use percussion as a courtship activity, whereas males will get the ( aural ) attention of females from a distance and then impress them with the sound volume and pattern. This explains why humans are sometimes inconvenienced by pecking that clearly has no feeding purpose (such as when the bird pecks on sheet metal repeatedly). Studies have shown that some birds use their beaks to rid themselves of excess heat. The toco toucan , which has

6572-579: The ratites . Here, the vomer is large and connects with premaxillae and maxillopalatine bones in a condition termed as a "paleognathous palate". All other extant birds have a narrow forked vomer that does not connect with other bones and is then termed as neognathous. The shape of these bones varies across the bird families. The lower mandible is supported by a bone known as the inferior maxillary bone—a compound bone composed of two distinct ossified pieces. These ossified plates (or rami ), which can be U-shaped or V-shaped, join distally (the exact location of

6696-548: The 13th century, comes from the Middle English bec (via Anglo French ), which itself comes from the Latin beccus . Although beaks vary significantly in size and shape from species to species, their underlying structures have a similar pattern. All beaks are composed of two jaws, generally known as the maxilla (upper) and mandible (lower). The upper, and in some cases the lower, mandibles are strengthened internally by

6820-629: The 21st century. RP, while long established as the standard English accent around the globe due to the spread of the British Empire , is distinct from the standard English pronunciation in some parts of the world; most prominently, RP notably contrasts with standard North American accents. In the 21st century, dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary , the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English ,

6944-836: The English Language (1755) was a large step in the English-language spelling reform , where the purification of language focused on standardising both speech and spelling. By the early 20th century, British authors had produced numerous books intended as guides to English grammar and usage, a few of which achieved sufficient acclaim to have remained in print for long periods and to have been reissued in new editions after some decades. These include, most notably of all, Fowler's Modern English Usage and The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers . Detailed guidance on many aspects of writing British English for publication

7068-666: The Germanic schwein ) is the animal in the field bred by the occupied Anglo-Saxons and pork (like the French porc ) is the animal at the table eaten by the occupying Normans. Another example is the Anglo-Saxon cu meaning cow, and the French bœuf meaning beef. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English;

7192-922: The Oxford Manual is a fairly exhaustive standard for published British English that writers can turn to in the absence of specific guidance from their publishing house. British English is the basis of, and very similar to, Commonwealth English . Commonwealth English is English as spoken and written in the Commonwealth countries , though often with some local variation. This includes English spoken in Australia , Malta , New Zealand , Nigeria , and South Africa . It also includes South Asian English used in South Asia, in English varieties in Southeast Asia , and in parts of Africa. Canadian English

7316-712: The South East, there are significantly different accents; the Cockney accent spoken by some East Londoners is strikingly different from Received Pronunciation (RP). Cockney rhyming slang can be (and was initially intended to be) difficult for outsiders to understand, although the extent of its use is often somewhat exaggerated. Londoners speak with a mixture of accents, depending on ethnicity, neighbourhood, class, age, upbringing, and sundry other factors. Estuary English has been gaining prominence in recent decades: it has some features of RP and some of Cockney. Immigrants to

7440-550: The UK in recent decades have brought many more languages to the country and particularly to London. Surveys started in 1979 by the Inner London Education Authority discovered over 125 languages being spoken domestically by the families of the inner city's schoolchildren. Notably Multicultural London English , a sociolect that emerged in the late 20th century spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London . Since

7564-640: The United Kingdom , as well as within the countries themselves. The major divisions are normally classified as English English (or English as spoken in England (which is itself broadly grouped into Southern English , West Country , East and West Midlands English and Northern English ), Northern Irish English (in Northern Ireland), Welsh English (not to be confused with the Welsh language ), and Scottish English (not to be confused with

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7688-489: The West Indies. The only non-forest living toucan is the toco toucan, which is found in savannah with forest patches and open woodlands. Toucans are highly social and most species occur in groups of up to 20 or more birds for most of the time. Pairs may retire from the groups during the breeding season, then return with their offspring after the breeding season. Larger groups may form during irruptions, migration or around

7812-465: The West Scottish accent. Phonological features characteristic of British English revolve around the pronunciation of the letter R, as well as the dental plosive T and some diphthongs specific to this dialect. Once regarded as a Cockney feature, in a number of forms of spoken British English, /t/ has become commonly realised as a glottal stop [ʔ] when it is in the intervocalic position, in

7936-439: The ability to preen in birds, followed by readdition of preening ability was shown to result in changes in body size in lice. Once the ability of the birds to preen was reintroduced, the lice were found to show declines in body size suggesting they may evolve in response to preening pressures from birds who could respond in turn with changes in beak morphology. A number of species, including storks , some owls , frogmouths and

8060-410: The adjective little is predominant elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described by the term British English . The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken and so a uniform concept of British English is more difficult to apply to

8184-438: The ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity". Variations exist in formal (both written and spoken) English in the United Kingdom. For example, the adjective wee is almost exclusively used in parts of Scotland, north-east England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally Yorkshire , whereas

8308-491: The anthropomorphic title character of the 2019 show Tuca & Bertie is a Toucan, and the companion of the song thrush Bertie. In the 2016 Nintendo 3DS game Pokémon Sun and Moon , the Pokémon Toucannon and its previous evolutions were modeled after a Toco Toucan. British English British English (abbreviations: BrE , en-GB , and BE ) is the set of varieties of the English language native to

8432-488: The award of the grant in 2007, Leeds University stated: that they were "very pleased"—and indeed, "well chuffed"—at receiving their generous grant. He could, of course, have been "bostin" if he had come from the Black Country , or if he was a Scouser he would have been well "made up" over so many spondoolicks, because as a Geordie might say, £460,000 is a "canny load of chink". Most people in Britain speak with

8556-464: The bare parts of many bird species, is responsible for all shades of gray and black; the denser the deposits of pigment found in the epidermis, the darker the resulting color. Phaeomelanin produces "earth tones" ranging from gold and rufous to various shades of brown. Although it is thought to occur in combination with eumelanin in beaks which are buff, tan, or horn-colored, researchers have yet to isolate phaeomelanin from any beak structure. More than

8680-424: The basal third of the upper mandible. Kiwi are a notable exception; their nares are located at the tip of their bills. A handful of species have no external nares. Cormorants and darters have primitive external nares as nestlings, but these close soon after the birds fledge ; adults of these species (and gannets and boobies of all ages, which also lack external nostrils) breathe through their mouths. There

8804-511: The beak. This shield -shaped structure, which sometimes spans the entire width of the beak, is often bent at the tip to form a hook. It serves different purposes depending on the bird's primary food source. Most species use their nails to dig seeds out of mud or vegetation, while diving ducks use theirs to pry molluscs from rocks. There is evidence that the nail may help a bird to grasp objects. Species which use strong grasping motions to secure their food (such as when catching and holding onto

8928-401: The bill" and runs from the point where the upper mandible emerges from the forehead's feathers to its tip. The bill's length along the culmen is one of the regular measurements made during bird banding (ringing) and is particularly useful in feeding studies. There are several standard measurements that can be made—from the beak's tip to the point where feathering starts on the forehead, from

9052-486: The bill, above the nares; though it is sometimes referred to as the cere , this is a different structure. Tapaculos are the only birds known to have the ability to move their opercula. Some species, such as the puffin , have a fleshy rosette, sometimes called a "gape rosette", at the corners of the beak. In the puffin, this is grown as part of its display plumage. Birds from a handful of families—including raptors, owls, skuas, parrots, turkeys and curassows—have

9176-527: The bills of female toucans are usually shorter, deeper and sometimes straighter, giving more of a "blocky" impression compared to male bills. The feathers in the genus containing the largest toucans are generally purple, with touches of white, yellow, and scarlet, and black. The underparts of the araçaris (smaller toucans) are yellow, crossed by one or more black or red bands. The toucanets have mostly green plumage with blue markings. The colorful and large bill , which in some large species measures more than half

9300-446: The bird to slice through a seed's outer hull . Most falcons have a sharp projection along the upper mandible, with a corresponding notch on the lower mandible. They use this "tooth" to sever their prey's vertebrae fatally or to rip insects apart. Some kites , principally those that prey on insects or lizards, also have one or more of these sharp projections, as do the shrikes . The tomial teeth of falcons are underlain by bone, while

9424-410: The breeding season. While most extant birds have a single seamless rhamphotheca, species in a few families, including the albatrosses and the emu , have compound rhamphothecae that consist of several pieces separated and defined by softer keratinous grooves. Studies have shown that this was the primitive ancestral state of the rhamphotheca, and that the modern simple rhamphotheca resulted from

9548-501: The brush-like projections may help to increase the coefficient of friction between the mandibles, thereby improving the bird's ability to hold hard prey items. Serrations on hummingbird bills, found in 23% of all hummingbird genera, may perform a similar function, allowing the birds to effectively hold insect prey. They may also allow shorter-billed hummingbirds to function as nectar thieves , as they can more effectively hold and cut through long or waxy flower corollas . In some cases,

9672-401: The cere can be used to distinguish between males and females in some species. For example, the male great curassow has a yellow cere, which the female (and young males) lack. The male budgerigar 's cere is royal blue, while the female's is a very pale blue, white, or brown. All birds of the family Anatidae (ducks, geese, and swans) have a nail , a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip of

9796-412: The color of a bird's tomia can help to distinguish between similar species. The snow goose , for example, has a reddish-pink bill with black tomia, while the whole beak of the similar Ross's goose is pinkish-red, without darker tomia. The culmen is the dorsal ridge of the upper mandible. Likened by ornithologist E. Coues to the ridge line of a roof, it is the "highest middle lengthwise line of

9920-518: The corners of the mouth to the tip of the beak. In bird anatomy , the gape is the interior of the open mouth of a bird, and the gape flange is the region where the two mandibles join together at the base of the beak. The width of the gape can be a factor in the choice of food. Gapes of juvenile altricial birds are often brightly coloured, sometimes with contrasting spots or other patterns, and these are believed to be an indication of their health, fitness and competitive ability. Based on this,

10044-622: The country. The BBC Voices project also collected hundreds of news articles about how the British speak English from swearing through to items on language schools. This information will also be collated and analysed by Johnson's team both for content and for where it was reported. "Perhaps the most remarkable finding in the Voices study is that the English language is as diverse as ever, despite our increased mobility and constant exposure to other accents and dialects through TV and radio". When discussing

10168-410: The culmen can also help with the identification of birds in the field. For example, the culmen of the parrot crossbill is strongly decurved, while that of the very similar red crossbill is more moderately curved. The culmen of a juvenile common loon is all dark, while that of the very similarly plumaged juvenile yellow-billed loon is pale towards the tip. The gonys is the ventral ridge of

10292-442: The eggs hatch, the young emerge completely naked, without any down . Toucans are resident breeders and do not migrate . Toucans are usually found in pairs or small flocks. They sometimes fence with their bills and wrestle, which scientists hypothesize they do to establish dominance hierarchies. In Africa and Asia , hornbills occupy the toucans' ecological niche , an example of convergent evolution . The name of this bird group

10416-494: The family. The constellation Tucana , containing most of the Small Magellanic Cloud , is named after the toucan. The family has been used prominently in advertising. During the 1930s and 1940s Guinness beer advertising featured a toucan, as the black and white appearance of the bird mirrored the stout. A cartoon toucan, Toucan Sam , has been used as the mascot of Froot Loops breakfast cereal since 1963, and

10540-404: The forehead, while the two lower prongs attach to the sides of the skull . At the base of the upper mandible a thin sheet of nasal bones is attached to the skull at the nasofrontal hinge, which gives mobility to the upper mandible, allowing it to move upward and downward. The base of the upper mandible, or the roof when seen from the mouth, is the palate, the structure of which differs greatly in

10664-415: The gape coloration, and other factors influencing their decision remain unknown. Red gape color has been shown in several experiments to induce feeding. An experiment in manipulating brood size and immune system with barn swallow nestlings showed the vividness of the gape was positively correlated with T-cell –mediated immunocompetence , and that larger brood size and injection with an antigen led to

10788-403: The gradual loss of the defining grooves through evolution. The tomia (singular tomium ) are the cutting edges of the two mandibles. In most birds, these range from rounded to slightly sharp, but some species have evolved structural modifications that allow them to handle their typical food sources better. Granivorous (seed-eating) birds, for example, have ridges in their tomia, which help

10912-458: The idea of two different morphemes, one that causes the double negation, and one that is used for the point or the verb. Standard English in the United Kingdom, as in other English-speaking nations, is widely enforced in schools and by social norms for formal contexts but not by any singular authority; for instance, there is no institution equivalent to the Académie française with French or

11036-483: The jaw muscles of similarly sized mammals. The outer surface of the beak consists of a thin sheath of keratin called the rhamphotheca , which can be subdivided into the rhinotheca of the upper mandible and the gnathotheca of the lower mandible. This covering arises from the Malpighian layer of the bird's epidermis , growing from plates at the base of each mandible. There is a vascular layer between

11160-549: The joint depends on the species) but are separated proximally , attaching on either side of the head to the quadrate bone. The jaw muscles, which allow the bird to close its beak, attach to the proximal end of the lower mandible and to the bird's skull. The muscles that depress the lower mandible are usually weak, except in a few birds such as the starlings and the extinct huia , which have well-developed digastric muscles that aid in foraging by prying or gaping actions. In most birds, these muscles are relatively small as compared to

11284-479: The largest beak relative to the size of its body of any bird species, is capable of modifying the blood flow to its beak. This process allows the beak to work as a "transient thermal radiator", reportedly rivaling an elephant's ears in its ability to radiate body heat. Measurements of the bill sizes of several species of American sparrows found in salt marshes along the North American coastlines show

11408-523: The last southern Midlands accent to use the broad "a" in words like bath or grass (i.e. barth or grarss ). Conversely crass or plastic use a slender "a". A few miles northwest in Leicestershire the slender "a" becomes more widespread generally. In the town of Corby , five miles (8 km) north, one can find Corbyite which, unlike the Kettering accent, is largely influenced by

11532-518: The later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary . Dialects and accents vary amongst the four countries of

11656-404: The length of the body, is the hallmark of toucans. Despite its size, the toucan's bill is very light, being composed of bone struts filled with spongy tissue of keratin between them, which take on the structure of a biofoam . The bill has forward-facing serrations resembling teeth, which historically led naturalists to believe that toucans captured fish and were primarily carnivorous; today it

11780-451: The lower mandible, created by the junction of the bone's two rami, or lateral plates. The proximal end of that junction—where the two plates separate—is known as the gonydeal angle or gonydeal expansion . In some gull species, the plates expand slightly at that point, creating a noticeable bulge; the size and shape of the gonydeal angle can be useful in identifying between otherwise similar species. Adults of many species of large gulls have

11904-524: The lowland tropics, but the mountain species from the genus Andigena reach temperate climates at high altitudes in the Andes and can be found up to the tree line . For the most part the toucans are forest species, and restricted to primary forests . They will enter secondary forests to forage, but are limited to forests with large old trees that have holes large enough to breed in. Toucans are poor dispersers, particularly across water, and have not reached

12028-716: The male garganey touches his beak to the blue speculum feathers on his wings in a fake preening display, and the male Mandarin duck does the same with his orange sail feathers. A number of species use a gaping, open beak in their fear and/or threat displays. Some augment the display by hissing or breathing heavily, while others clap their beak. Red-bellied woodpeckers at bird feeders often wave their formidable beaks at competing birds who get too close, clearly signaling "this seed's mine, you can't have it." The platypus uses its bill to navigate underwater, detect food, and dig. The bill contains electroreceptors and mechanoreceptors, causing muscular contractions to help detect prey. It

12152-457: The mass internal migration to Northamptonshire in the 1940s and given its position between several major accent regions, it has become a source of various accent developments. In Northampton the older accent has been influenced by overspill Londoners. There is an accent known locally as the Kettering accent, which is a transitional accent between the East Midlands and East Anglian . It is

12276-463: The modern period, but due to their remoteness from the Germanic languages , influence on English was notably limited . However, the degree of influence remains debated, and it has recently been argued that its grammatical influence accounts for the substantial innovations noted between English and the other West Germanic languages. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting

12400-570: The modification of several tail vertebrae . The rear three vertebrae are fused and attached to the spine by a ball and socket joint . Because of this, toucans may snap their tail forward until it touches the head. This is the posture in which they sleep, often appearing simply as a ball of feathers, with the tip of the tail sticking out over the head. Toucans are native to the Neotropics, from Southern Mexico, through Central America, into South America south to northern Argentina. They mostly live in

12524-405: The most popular and well known birds in the world. Across their native range they were hunted for food and also kept as pets, and their plumage and bills were used for decorations. In some places anyone that discovers a nest is deemed its owner and is entitled to sell the birds within. In the western world they were first popularised by John Gould , who devoted two editions to a detailed monograph of

12648-442: The normal seasonal color change in the beaks of male black-headed gulls and indigo buntings . The beak of modern birds has a fused premaxillary bone, which is modulated by the expression of Fgf8 gene in the frontonasal ectodermal zone during embryonic development. The shape of the beak is determined by two modules: the prenasal cartilage during early embryonic stage and the premaxillary bone during later stages. Development of

12772-485: The parents decide how to distribute food among the chicks in the nest. Some species, especially in the families Viduidae and Estrildidae , have bright spots on the gape known as gape tubercles or gape papillae. These nodular spots are conspicuous even in low light. A study examining the nestling gapes of eight passerine species found that the gapes were conspicuous in the ultraviolet spectrum (visible to birds but not to humans). Parents may, however, not rely solely on

12896-451: The prenasal cartilage is regulated by genes Bmp4 and CaM , while that of the premaxillary bone is controlled by TGFβllr , β-catenin , and Dickkopf-3. TGFβllr codes for a serine/threonine protein kinase that regulates gene transcription upon ligand binding; previous work has highlighted its role in mammalian craniofacial skeletal development. β-catenin is involved in the differentiation of terminal bone cells. Dickkopf-3 codes for

13020-514: The presence of suitable trees is a habitat prerequisite for toucans. For the most part toucans don't excavate nesting cavities, although some green toucanets do. Toucans make a variety of sounds. The very name of the bird (from Tupi ) refers to its predominant frog-like croaking call, but toucans also make barking and growling sounds. They also use their bills to make tapping and clattering sounds. Mountain toucans are known for donkey-like braying. The toucans are, due to their unique appearance, among

13144-441: The presence of ultraviolet color) on their beaks. The presence and intensity of these peaks may indicate a bird's fitness, sexual maturity or pair bond status. King and emperor penguins , for example, show spots of ultraviolet reflectance only as adults. These spots are brighter on paired birds than on courting birds. The position of such spots on the beak may be important in allowing birds to identify conspecifics . For instance,

13268-401: The rapid evaporation of water vapor, and may also help to increase condensation within the nostrils themselves—both critical functions, since the nestlings get fluids only from the food their parents bring them. These opercula shrink as the birds age, disappearing completely by the time they reach adulthood. In pigeons , the operculum has evolved into a soft swollen mass that sits at the base of

13392-424: The rhamphotheca and the deeper layers of the dermis , which is attached directly to the periosteum of the bones of the beak. The rhamphotheca grows continuously in most birds, and in some species, the color varies seasonally. In some alcids , such as the puffins, parts of the rhamphotheca are shed each year after the breeding season, while some pelicans shed a part of the bill called a "bill horn" that develops in

13516-486: The same principle as a human-devised nutcracker ). Birds that fish for a living have beaks adapted for that pursuit; for example, pelicans ' beaks are well adapted for scooping up and swallowing fish whole. Woodpeckers have beaks well adapted for pecking apart wood while hunting for their meals of arthropods . Birds may bite or stab with their beaks to defend themselves. Some species use their beaks in displays of various sorts. As part of his courtship, for example,

13640-415: The same span as the bill-tip-to-tail-tip measurements of the bird. The legs of the toucan are strong and rather short. Their toes are arranged in pairs with the first and fourth toes turned backward. The majority of toucans do not show any sexual dimorphism in their coloration, the genus Selenidera being the most notable exception to this rule (hence their common name, "dichromatic toucanets"). However,

13764-428: The same species, and female American avocets have beaks which are slightly more upturned than those of males. Males of the larger gull species have bigger, stouter beaks than those of females of the same species, and immatures can have smaller, more slender beaks than those of adults. Many hornbills show sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of both beaks and casques , and the female huia 's slim, decurved bill

13888-428: The shrike tomial teeth are entirely keratinous. Some fish-eating species, e.g., the mergansers , have sawtooth serrations along their tomia, which help them to keep hold of their slippery, wriggling prey. Birds in roughly 30 families have tomia lined with tight bunches of very short bristles along their entire length. Most of these species are either insectivores (preferring hard-shelled prey) or snail eaters, and

14012-401: The spoken language. Globally, countries that are former British colonies or members of the Commonwealth tend to follow British English, as is the case for English used by European Union institutions. In China, both British English and American English are taught. The UK government actively teaches and promotes English around the world and operates in over 200 countries . English is

14136-603: The theft of work tools worth £500 from a van at the Sprucefield park and ride car park in Lisburn. A football team can be treated likewise: Arsenal have lost just one of 20 home Premier League matches against Manchester City. This tendency can be observed in texts produced already in the 19th century. For example, Jane Austen , a British author, writes in Chapter 4 of Pride and Prejudice , published in 1813: All

14260-405: The tip to the anterior edge of the nostrils, from the tip to the base of the skull, or from the tip to the cere (for raptors and owls) — and scientists from various parts of the world generally favor one method over another. In all cases, these are chord measurements (measured in a straight line from point to point, ignoring any curve in the culmen) taken with calipers . The shape or color of

14384-434: The toucan may plunder nests undisturbed (see Diet below). The beak allows the bird to reach deep into tree-holes to access food unavailable to other birds, and also to ransack suspended nests built by smaller birds. A toucan's tongue is long (up to 15 cm or 6 in), narrow, grey, and singularly frayed on each side, adding to its sensitivity as a tasting organ. A structural complex probably unique to toucans involves

14508-403: The traditional accent of Newcastle upon Tyne , 'out' will sound as 'oot', and in parts of Scotland and North-West England, 'my' will be pronounced as 'me'. Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are diphthongised to [ɪi] and [ʊu] respectively (or, more technically, [ʏʉ], with a raised tongue), so that ee and oo in feed and food are pronounced with a movement. The diphthong [oʊ] is also pronounced with

14632-417: The upper and lower mandibles – are covered with a thin keratinized layer of epidermis known as the rhamphotheca. In most species, two holes called nares lead to the respiratory system. Although the word "beak" was, in the past, generally restricted to the sharpened bills of birds of prey , in modern ornithology , the terms beak and bill are generally considered to be synonymous. The word, which dates from

14756-750: The varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon , eventually came to dominate. The original Old English was then influenced by two waves of invasion: the first was by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who settled in parts of Britain in the eighth and ninth centuries; the second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman . These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it

14880-473: The very similarly-plumaged king and emperor penguins have UV-reflective spots in different positions on their beaks. The size and shape of the beak can vary across species as well as between them; in some species, the size and proportions of the beak vary between males and females. This allows the sexes to utilize different ecological niches, thereby reducing intraspecific competition . For example, females of nearly all shorebirds have longer bills than males of

15004-428: The wildfowl family one of its former names: "Unguirostres" comes from the Latin ungus , meaning "nail" and rostrum , meaning "beak". Rictal bristles are stiff hair-like feathers that arise around the base of the beak. They are common among insectivorous birds, but are also found in some non-insectivorous species. Their function is uncertain, although several possibilities have been proposed. They may function as

15128-568: The world are good and agreeable in your eyes. However, in Chapter 16, the grammatical number is used. The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence. Some dialects of British English use negative concords, also known as double negatives . Rather than changing a word or using a positive, words like nobody, not, nothing, and never would be used in the same sentence. While this does not occur in Standard English, it does occur in non-standard dialects. The double negation follows

15252-399: Was nearly twice as long as the male's straight, thicker one. Color can also differ between sexes or ages within a species. Typically, such a color difference is due to the presence of androgens . For example, in house sparrows , melanins are produced only in the presence of testosterone ; castrated male house sparrows—like female house sparrows—have brown beaks. Castration also prevents

15376-422: Was never a truly mixed language in the strictest sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). The more idiomatic, concrete and descriptive English is, the more it is from Anglo-Saxon origins. The more intellectual and abstract English is, the more it contains Latin and French influences, e.g. swine (like

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