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Crocker
In England, according to Montagu, Crocker is a name
for the Black-headed GULL,
Larus ridibundus; but in North America
(and perhaps also in some parts of Britain) used for the Brent-Goose
(Trumbull, Portr. and Names of Birds, page 6).
Crop
Crossbill
Crow
Crown-Bird
The name given by some old African travellers to one or more species of
TOURACO (cf. Latham, Gen. Hist. B. v. p. 176).
Cubitals
Also known as Secondaries, the Cubitals are those REMIGES which are supported
by the upper surface of the ulna or cubitus of the anterior extremity.
The rational way of counting them is to begin with the quill nearest to
the wrist-joint, because reduction and addition in numbers takes place
at the proximal end of the ulna. The number of the cubitals is reduced
to 6 in the Trochilidae and is increased to 30 and more in some Tubinares;
it stands in direct correlation with the length of the wing bones. Archaeopteryx
seems to have possessed 10 cubitals, which probably approaches closely
the original number in true Birds. Of perhaps some slight taxonomic value
is the presence or absence of the original fifth cubital quill. This peculiarity
was discovered by Gerbe (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1877, p. 289), and followed
up by Wray, Gadow, and Sclater (P.Z.S. 1887, p. 343; 1888, p. 655; and
Ibis, 1890, p. 77). Contrary to expectation, the missing fifth quill shows
no trace of its former existence in embryos, there being a distinct gap
between the fourth and sixth quill, while the upper and lower fifth coverts
remain. Wray proposed to call the birds with the fifth quill normally developed
quincubital, those without it aquincubital!
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Cursores
An Order of Birds proposed by Illiger in 1811 (Prodrom. Syst. Mammal.
et Avium, pages 246-250) to contain the genera Casuarius
(Cassowary),
Struthio
(OSTRICH),
RHEA, Otis (Bustard),
Charadrius
(PLOVER),
Calidris
(SANDERLING),
Himantopus
(STILT),
Haematopus
(OYSTER-CATCHER),
Tachydromus
(=
Cursorius,
Courser), and Burhinus (Stone
Curlew). Notwithstanding the obviously artificial nature of this group,
several ornithologists of the time accepted it, some entirely, but others
with so many modifications that the meaning of the term eventually became
quite indefinite.
Curucul
A Brazilian word adopted, through the French, by some
English authors for the TROGONS.
Cushat
A common name for the Ring-DOVE or Wood-PIGEON.
Cypselomorphae
Professor Huxley's name (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, page 468) for the
group of Aegithognathae
containing the Families Caprimulgidae
(GOATSUCKER),
Cypselidae
(SWIFT),
and Trochilidae (HUMMING-BIRD), which he considered to be "annectent
forms between the Coracomorphae
and the Coccygomorphae".
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