[1] G. W. Lamplough, _The Geology of the Isle of Man_, Mem. Geol.
Survey (1903).
MANAAR, GULF OF, a portion of the Indian Ocean lying between the coast
of Madras and Ceylon. Its northern limit is the line of rocks and
islands called Adam's Bridge. Its extreme width from Cape Comorin to
Point de Galle is about 200 miles.
MANACOR, a town of Spain in the island of Majorca, 40 m. by rail E. of
Palma. Pop. (1900), 12,408. Manacor has a small trade in grain, fruit,
wine, oil and live stock. In the neighbourhood are the cave of Drach,
containing several underground lakes, and the caves of Artá, one of the
largest and finest groups of stalactite caverns in western Europe.
MANAGE, to control, direct, or be in a position or have the capacity to
do anything (from Ital. _maneggiare_, to train horses, literally to
handle; Lat. _manus_, hand). The word was first used of the "management"
of a horse. Its meanings have been much influenced by the French
_ménager_, to direct a household or _ménage_ (from late Lat. _mansio_,
house); hence to economize, to husband resources, &c. The French
_ménage_, act of guiding or leading, from _mener_, to lead, seems also
to have influenced the meaning.
MANAGUA, the capital of Nicaragua, and of the department of Managua; on
the southern shore of Lake Managua, and on the railway from Diriamba to
El Viejo, 65 m. by rail S.E. of the Pacific port of Corinto. Pop.
(1905), about 30,000. Managua is a modern city, with many flourishing
industries and a rapidly growing population. Its chief buildings are
those erected after 1855, when it was chosen as the capital to put an
end to the rivalry between the then more important cities of Leon and
Granada. They include the Palacio Nacional or government buildings,
Corinthian in style, the national library and museum, an ornate
Renaissance structure, the barracks and the general post office. Owing
to its position on the lake, and its excellent communications by rail
and steamer, Managua obtained after 1855 an important export trade in
coffee, sugar, cocoa and cotton, although in 1876 it was temporarily
ruined by a great inundation.
MANAKIN, from the Dutch word _Manneken_, applied to certain small birds,
a name apparently introduced into English by G. Edwards (_Nat. Hist.
Birds_, i. 21) in or about 1743, since which time it has been accepted
generally, and is now used for those which form the family _Pipridae_.
The manakins are peculiar to the Neotropical Region and have many of the
habits of the titmouse family (_Paridae_), living 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_. The _Pipridae_, however, have no close affinity with the
_Paridae_,[1] but belong to another great division of the order
_Passeres_, the _Clamatores_ group of the _Anisomyodae_. 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 of the outer rectrices are
attenuated and produced into threads. They have been divided (Brit. Mus.
_Cat. Birds_, vol. xiv.) into nineteen genera with about seventy
species, of which eighteen are included under _Pipra_ itself. _P.
leucilla_, one of the best known, 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 _Machaeropterus_, 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 P. L. Sclater (_Proc.
Zool. Society_, 1860, p. 90; Ibis, 1862, p. 175[2]) in the case of the
beautiful _M. 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 _Chiromachaeris_, comprehending seven species,
and Sclater is of the opinion that it enables them to make the singular
noise for which they have long been noted, described by O. Salvin
(_Ibis_, 1860, p. 37) in the case of one of them, _M. candaei_, 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, according to Buffon (_Hist. Nat. Oiseaux_, iv.
413), of _Cassenoisette_. (A. N.)