Hawaiian honeycreeper, any member of a group of related birds, many of them nectar-eating, that evolved in the forests of the Hawaiian Islands and are found only there. Recent evidence from osteology, behaviour, plumage, breeding biology, and genetics has led to a consensus that the Hawaiian honeycreepers are closely related to the cardueline finches, which include birds such as goldfinches, canaries, siskins, and crossbills. They constitute the family Drepanididae within the order Passeriformes. Most of the species are called by native names (see amakihi; apapane; iiwi; mamo). Habitat destruction and the introduction of foreign birds and mammals have led to the extinction of at least 8 of the original 23 species; most of the survivors are endangered. Numerous subspecies are known.
Hawaiian honeycreepers differ in certain ways from American honeycreepers. Isolated in the mid-Pacific, they underwent a remarkable evolutionary radiation, diversifying in the manner of the better-known Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands. Those with thin bills and, usually, red-and-black plumage (both sexes look alike) feed on nectar; those with finchlike bills and, usually, greenish plumage (males often have orange or yellow markings) eat seeds, fruits, and insects. Other species are intermediate between these two types. In most Hawaiian honeycreepers the tongue is troughlike and brush-tipped. The birds’ size ranges from 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 inches). Hawaiian honeycreepers usually have simple songs and make grassy nests.
…honeycreepers, birds of the family Drepanididae, all derived from a single immigrant form. In fact, all but one of Hawaii’s 71 native bird species are endemic; that is, they have evolved there and are found nowhere else. More than 90 percent of the native species of flowering plants, land mollusks,…
…islands, there were three nectar-feeding Hawaiian honeycreepers—the mamo (Drepanis pacifica), the black mamo (Drepanis funerea), and the iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea)—that had long decurved (downward-curving) beaks, the kind adapted to inserting into appropriately long and curved flowers. The first two birds are extinct, whereas the third is extinct…
Drepanididae (Hawaiian honeycreepers) Small forest birds, 11.5 to 22 cm (4.5 to 8.5 inches), limited to the Hawaiian Islands; evolved from fringillid ancestors. Bill extremely varied among species: short to long, thin to thick, straight to extremely downcurved, pointed to hooked, but never serrate or notched.…
Fenton J. A. Hort, (born April 23, 1828, Dublin—died Nov. 30, 1892, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.), English New Testament scholar who produced, with Brooke Foss Westcott, a major critical text of the Greek New Testament. Hort was known for his theological depth and knowledge of the writings of the early Church Fathers.
Hort was educated at Cambridge, where he joined a group of biblical scholars including Westcott and Joseph Barber Lightfoot, and he maintained the connection throughout his life. From 1852 to 1857, he was a fellow of the university, returning in 1872 as professor, which position he retained until his death. In 1856 he was ordained in the Anglican Church and for 15 years served as a minister near Cambridge. During most of this period, he worked with Westcott on their critical edition of the New Testament, published in 1881. This work served as the basis for the New Testament portion of the English Revised Version of the Bible (1881). Hort also produced a major essay on philosophical theology, The Way, The Truth, and The Life (1893), dealing with the coexistence of an open, critical mind with acceptance of biblical truths.
Westcott and F.J.A. Hort of Cambridge, using ℵ ανδ Β, βρουγητ ουτ αν εδιτιον ιν 1881–82 and classified the text witnesses into four groupings: Neutral (B, ℵ, the purest and earliest Eastern text); Alexandrian (a smoothed Neutral text as it developed in Alexandria); Western (D, Old Syrian,…
…biblical scholar who collaborated with Fenton J.A. Hort on an influential critical edition of the Greek text of the New Testament.…
Iltutmish, also called Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish, Iltutmish also spelled Altamsh, (died April 29, 1236), third and greatest Delhi sultan of the so-called Slave dynasty. Iltutmish was sold into slavery but married the daughter of his master, Quṭb al-Dīn Aibak, whom he succeeded in 1211. He strengthened and expanded the Muslim empire in northern India and moved the capital to Delhi, where he built the great victory tower, the Quṭb Mīnār.
A wise and patient statesman who had been trained as a trusted administrator under his predecessors Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām and Quṭb al-Dīn, Iltutmish was faced upon his accession not only with the deterioration of Muslim rule but also with the claim of Tāj al-Dīn Yildoiz, the Ghazna ruler, to succession to all of Muʿizz al-Dīn’s conquests and with the attempts by the Hindus to recover portions of their lost territory. In 1215 he captured Yildoiz, who died in prison. In 1225 he forced the unruly Bengali governor to acknowledge the authority of Delhi, and shortly thereafter he consolidated again the Muslim holdings. Iltutmish was able to preserve his kingdom against the ravages of the Mongol invasions that coincided with his reign, and he succeeded in building an administrative machinery for the empire. He sought out 11th-century Islamic classics on the art of government; and the Ādāb al-Muluk (“Conduct of the Kings”), the first Indo-Muslim classic on the art of government and warfare, was written for him. He was tolerant of the Hindus despite the urgings of his advisers, and he built up the waterworks, mosques, and amenities at Delhi to make it for the first time a fitting seat of government. His reign and his advisers, especially the vizier Junaydī, were praised by contemporaries.
Iltutmish’s eldest son died before he did, and his other sons were incompetent. He gave an excellent education to his daughter Raziyya (Raziyyat al-Dīn) and desired that she should succeed him. His wishes were offensive to the administrative Council of Forty, Iltutmish’s personal slaves who served as his advisers. Raziyya did succeed briefly to the throne, but her appointment of an African to an important position was considered insulting to the council, which shortly brought about her downfall. This marked the beginning of the decline of the line of Iltutmish.
Sultan Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish (reigned 1211–36), son-in-law and successor to Aybak, who was himself a mamlūk, sent a merchant to Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tirmiz to purchase young slaves on his behalf.…
…finest is the tomb of Iltutmish, who ruled from 1211 to 1236. The interior, covered with Arabic inscriptions, in its richness displays a strong Indian quality. The first use of the true arch in India is found in the ruined tomb of Balban (died 1287). From 1296 to 1316 ʿAlāʾ-ud-Dīn…
…in present Afghanistan) until Sultan Iltutmish (reigned 1211–36) had made his permanent capital at Delhi, had repulsed rival attempts to take over the Ghūrid conquests in India, and had withdrawn his forces from contact with the Mongol armies, which by the 1220s had conquered Afghanistan. Iltutmish also gained firm control…
…son-in-law, ablest general, and successor, Iltutmish (reigned 1211–36), basing his power on the conquests of Quṭb, was able to establish the independence of the Delhi sultanate.…
…later, by the settlement of Sheikh Isaq, founder of the Isaaq Somali. As the Daarood and Isaaq clans grew in numbers and territory in the northeast, they began to vie with their Oromo neighbours, thus creating a general thrust toward the southwest. By the 16th century the movements that followed…