CROSSWORD

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ACROSS

6 Flowering shrub related to the honeysuckle (6)

8 Mountain range and biodiversity hotspot in West Asia, home to bison, brown bear and Persian leopard (8)

9 Widely cultivated vegetable, sometimes called knob celery (8)

10 ___ robin, meadow wildflower with frayed pink flowers, increasingly scarce (6)

11 Brightly coloured insect-eating bird of the subcontinent (6, 6)

13 ___ pipit, streaky songbird of heathland and other open country (6)

15 Prickly plant, much loved by goldfinches (6)

18 Secretive wading bird, Porzana porzana, related to the water rail (7, 5)

21 Member of the beetle family that includes dung, Hercules and rhinoceros beetles (6)

22 Flowering plant native to South America with succulent leaves and many-coloured flowers, sometimes called ten o’clock (4, 4)

23 ___ Point, saltmarsh and sand dune nature reserve in North Norfolk (8)

24 ___ plover, small wader with orange legs and a black neckband (6) DOWN 1 Colourful American songbird that might be eastern, western or mountain (8) 2 Asian fig tree (6) 3 Small auk of the north Pacific that might be long-billed or marbled (8) 4 US name for some species of skua (6) 5 Genus of birds to which the buzzard belongs (5) 7 Small, long-bodied marine fish with large eyes and mouths (8)

8 Migratory bird with a distinctive call, notable for brood parasitism (6)

12 North American plant in the sunflower family (8)

14 Name given to honeysuckle and some other creeping plants (8)

16 Wildflower with rust-coloured fruits and small yellow flowers, sometimes called church steeples (8)

17 ___ petrel, old-fashioned name for the small seabird Hydrobates pelagicus (6)

18 Bird that might by great grey or red-backed, sometimes called a butcherbird (6)

19 Arid habitat type, home to mammals such as jerboa, oryx and camel (6)

20 ___ thrush, bird of India and the Himalayas with scale-like patterning (5)