Coracomorphae
The name given by 19th century biologist Professor Huxley for the large
group of DESMOGNATHOUS birds - incomparably the largest of those that now
exist, and for the most part equivalent to the PASSERES of Linnaeus and
Cuvier, and wholly to the VOLUCRES of Sundevall (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867,
pp. 468-472).
Cormorant
Corrira
A bird so named and described by Aldrovandus, as occuring in Italy.
However it has never, so far as is known, been seen since, and is apparently
fictitious.
Cotinga
See Chatterer.
Coucal
Coulterneb
A common name of the PUFFIN, from the likeness of its
bill to the coulter of a plough.
Courser
Cowbird
Cowry bird
The Fingilla punctulata of Linnaeus, the Amadina
or
Munia
punctulata of 19th Century writers. From what I have been able
to discover, I believe that this bird is what is today called the the Scaly-breasted
Munia, and also known as the Spice Finch or Nutmeg Mannikin, whose modern
latin scientific name is Lonchura punctulata. It was apparently first
made known by Edwards (N. H. Birds, i. page 40), who illustrated
it from an example which he was told had come from the East Indies, where
it "was called a Gowry or Cowry Bird, they being sold for
a small shell apiece, called a Gowry." It is a common cage-bird
and is found throughout India, Ceylon and Burma.
Crab Plover
The Crab Plover is a curious bird of wide range, frequenting the east coast
of Africa from the Red Sea to Natal, as well as the northern and western
shores of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and many of the intervening
islands. It was described and illustrated by Paykull in 1805
(K. Vet.-Acad. N. Handl. xxvi. pages 182-190, plate viii), from
a specimen bought by him at Amsterdam, and said to have come from the East
Indies, under the name of Dromas ardeola, which it has since generally
borne. It closely resembles the Avocet
in general coloration and in its webbed toes, while its bill is as hard
and trenchant as the Oyster-Catcher, though in a different form. It has
an unusual habit of breeding in burrows in sand-hills.
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Cracker
A name of the PINTAIL, (Anas acuta).
Crake
Generally with a prefix, as Corn-Crake, this is a common name of a bird
formerly commonly known as the Land-RAIL. The suffix Crake
is often used for others of the Rallidae family in which the bill
is comparatively short.
Crane
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Cranium
A word latinized from thegreek kranion meaning a skull, the Cranium
in birds is anatomically applied to the bony and cartilaginous parts of
the skull without the jaws and the palato-pterygo-quadrate bones, and therefore
practically equivalent to those parts which enclose the cranial cavity
and the three principal sense-organs (see SKELETON).
Creeper
Equating to the Dutch word Kruiper, Swedish Krypare, and
Norsk
Kryber,the term Creeper is sometimes employed by
ornithologists in a very vague sense. Provincially it is very frequently
used for the NUTHATCH. Chiefly however the Creeper signifies the
Certhidae family of birds, which is more accurately known as TREE-CREEPER.
Crest
Feathery crests seem to be entirely ornamental,
favourite objects of mating and pairing selection, and therefore mostly
developed in the male gender ; they are generally erectile by the aid of
cutaneous and subcutaneous muscles, notably by the musculus cucullaris.
Horny crests, often supported by swollen cancellous outgrowths of the maxillary,
nasal, and frontal bones (as in Hornbills and Cassowaries),
have been described in connection with the bill.
Very peculiar are the entirely horny, slender and erectile outgrowths on
the forehead of the Horned Screamer (Anhima cornuta); and the similar erectile,
long process of Bell Birds, which
is partly covered with very small feathers. The soft crest or comb of many
Phasianidae consists, like the wattles of other birds, entirely of the
bare skin, and, being very rich in nerves and blood-vessels, is, as swelling
organs, erectile in a different sense. Prominent ridges of bones,
serving then for the attachment of powerful muscles are likewise called"
crests", for example the crista sterni.
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