More than 900 species of birds are known from North America, an avifauna made up of native year-round residents and seasonal migrants, modestly enhanced by introduced exotics and neighboring vagrants. Bird Is the Word is an unequalled compilation of the names of almost 800 of those birds and the record of how, when, where, and by whom those names were created and became parts of the history and science of North America's avifauna. This book is made up of three parts. Part I provides an introduction to the discovery and recording of North American birds by Europeans and to the scope and structure of avian taxonomy. Part II, which consists of 26 chapters and makes up most of the book, is devoted to the names of the individual species and the historical and cultural context of those names. Part III includes three appendixes, the largest of which introduces more than a hundred naturalists and other persons who participated searching for, finding, recording, naming, describing, or illustrating the birds of North America. Bird Is the Word is a rich, and readily accessible, collection of information about finding and naming the birds of North America. It is much more than a reference book; it is a journey of discovery that will enrich the reader's birding experience.

Discover the delights of nature with zoologist, poet and top children's book author Nicola Davies. Learn how to draw birds of all shapes and sizes, including tiny hummingbirds and enormous ostriches, with full instructions on how to draw these animals by illustrator Abbie Cameron and lots of fun facts on all the animals by Nicola Davies.

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.

This landmark dictionary proves that English words can be traced back to the universal, original language, Biblical Hebrew. Genesis II supports a 'Mother Tongue' thesis, and the Bible also claims that Adam named the animals. This may seem difficult to accept, but then why do the translations of the following animals' names: Skunk, Gopher, Giraffe and Horse actually have corresponding meanings in Biblical Hebrew, such as: Stinker, Digger, Neck and Plower? The book features overwhelming data suggesting that the roots of all human words are universal, and that words have related synonyms and antonyms that must have been intelligently designed (perhaps by the designer of life himself!) The current hypothesis that language evolved from grunting ape-men may seem like the flat earth theory after reading this book. The 22,000 English-Hebrew links provide surprising evidence, and open new worlds of understanding, once we consider that all of these similar words could not be coincidences.

This book is a history of the medical vocabulary presented in topical (rather than dictionary) form. While most other books on medical words are arranged as dictionaries, rather than topically, and are much more selective in their presentation, this book entertains a comprehensive and historical approach to the subject. It is written primarily for physicians, biomedical scientists, and medical students, but should also appeal to anyone in the health professions or biological sciences with a 'feel' for medical history and the English language. It will also be useful to some teachers of English or linguistics. The idea of the book developed over at least a decade, and brings together for the author a lifelong interest in words, classical and modern languages, and the history of medicine. The purpose is not only to foster the more precise use of the language of medicine by doctors and biomedical scientists, but also to enhance their enjoyment of the vocabulary they use professionally on a daily basis. Readers will find that the book contains a wealth of knowledge and provides for some very pleasurable reading.