|
|
Cobblers-Awl
A fanciful name given to the Avocet,
particularly before its first extermination in England in the early 19th
Century. According to Gould (Handbook of the Birds of Australiastra
i.
p. 551), Cobblers Awl is also used in Tasmania for the Eastern Spinebill
(Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) one of the Meliphagidae
(HONEY-SUCKER).
The shape of the bill has in both cases suggested the name, but it is far
less appropriate in the latter than in the former.
Coccygomorphae
The seventh section of Desmognathae according to Prof. Huxley's scheme
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 466-467), comprising 14 Families which
are arranged in four groups, viz:
Group a
Group b
-
Musophagidae (PLANTAIN-EATER and TOURACO)
-
Cuculidae (Cuckoo)
-
Bucconidae (PUFF-BIRD)
-
Rhamphastidae. (TOUCAN)
-
Capitonidae (Barbet)
-
Galbulidae (JACAMAR)
Group c
-
Alcedinidae (KINGFISHER)
-
Bucerotidae (HORNBILL)
-
Upupidae (HOOPOE)
-
Meropidae (Bee
Eater),
-
Momotidae (MOTMOT),
-
Coraciidae (ROLLER)
Group d
Cockatiel
A bird-fancier's name invented by a Mr Jamrach in the 19th Century, and
now in common use, being an English adaptation of Kakatielje, which
in its turn is supposed to be a Dutch sailor's rendering of a Portuguese
word,
Cacatilho or Cacatelho, meaning a little Cockatoo,
and applied to the Australian Cockatoo-Parrakeet, then known as Calopsitta
novae-hollandiae, but now referred to as Nymphicus hollandicus,
a
favourite cage-bird.
Cockatoo
Cock-Of-The-Plains
One of the American GROUSE (Tetraonidae) family, The Sage Grouse (Centrocercus
urophasianus).
Cock-Of-The-Rock
Cock-Of-The-Wood
See Capercaillie.
Coddy-Moddy
The
etymology of this term is unknown. It is a local name of considerable
antiquity, and still sometimes in use for the Black-headed GULL (Larus
ridibundus).
Coldfinch
A name for which no explanation can be offered, unless it may have been
intended for Coalfinch, but used so long ago as Willughby's time for the
Pied FLYCATCHER.
|
|
|
Colin
The Mexican word (The French Colin, an old nick-name for a GULL,
given in 1555 by Belon (Ois. page 167), has no connection with the
Mexican word) which practically signifies QUAIL, though the Quails of the
New World have long been held to form a group distinct from any of those
of the Old. The name seems to have been first printed in 1635 by Nieremberg
(Hist. Nat. p. 232, cap. lxxii.); but he says he took it from Hernandez,
whose work was not published until 1651, where it duly occurs (Hist.
Anim. Nov. Hispan. page 22, cap. xxxix.). Willughby (Ornithol.
Lat.
page 304, Angl. page 393) quoted from both, and thus the word came into
English use, even to finding its way into an Act of Parliament (43 and
44 Vict.
cap. 35). In the Mexican language it was variously compounded,
as Ococolin
(Mountain-Partridge),
Acolin
(Water-Quail), and
Cacacolin
(cf.
Hernandez,
op.
cit. pp. 32, 42). These have not all been determined; but it is generally
agreed that Colin
alone meant some species of the genus
Ortyx.
|
|
Colour
Coly
Pennant's rendering of the French Colin, adapted by Brisson from
Mohring's Colius; which, according to Cuvier, is the Greek
kolios
(see
MOUSEBIRD)
Condor
Conirostres
In Dumeril's arrangement (Zoologie analytique, p. 43), Conirostres
was the fourth Family of PASSERES, containing STARLINGS, FINCHES, and several
other groups. Although admitted by him to be a wholly artificial
assemblage, it was one that was recognized by systematic writers for a
long while.
Coot
Coppersmith
See Barbet.
Coracoid
Named after the coracoid process on the human shoulder-blade, which was
likened in shape by mediaeval anatomists to a Raven's bill, the Coracoid
in birds is one of a pair of strong bones which connect the anterior or
basal margin of the sternum with the scapula and clavicle, and form the
chief articulation of the humerus with the shoulder-girdle (see SKELETON).
|
|
|
