CRAB-PLOVER— CRANE 



109 



from aji example which, he was told had come from the East Indies, 

 where it " was called a Govxry or Oovn-ij Bii'd, they being sold for a 

 small shell apiece, called a Gowry." It is a common cage-bii'd 

 belonging to the Floceidx (Weaver-bird), and is found throughout 

 India, Ceylon, and Burma. 



CRAB-PLOVEPi, the Anglo-Indian name for a cmious bird of 

 Avide range, frequenting the east coast of Africa from the Eed 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 figui^ed by Paykull in 1805 (K. Vet.- Acad. N. 

 Handl. xxvi. pp. 182-190, pi. 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. Several systematists have ui'ged that it should be regarded 

 as an aberrant form of Tern ; but there can be little doubt, 

 especially after the researches of Van der Hoeven (N. Acta Acad. 

 L.-C. Nat. Cur. xxxiii. ; French Transl. Arch. N4erl. 1868, pp. 281- 

 295), that it properly belongs to that polymoi-phic group of LiMi- 

 COL.'E, which comprises the genera Hsematopus (Oyster-catcher), 

 Himantojnis (Stilt), and Recurvirostra (Avoset) — the last of which it 

 closely resembles in general coloration and in its webbed toes, while 

 its bill is as hard and trenchant as in any member of the first, 

 though of a different form. The possibility of its being ^vith Chionis 

 (Sheathbill) a surviving link between the Charadriidie and the 

 Laridse is very great. For its habit of breeding in burrows in sand- 

 hills, see Hume, Nests and Eggs of Lidian Birds, ed. 2, iii. pp. 327-330. 



CRACIvER, a name of the Pintail, Dafila acuta. 



CEAIvE (Lat. Crex), generally with a prefix, as Corn-CRAKE, a 

 common name of the Land-PAIL, and often used for others of the 

 Eallidse, in which the bill is comparatively short. 



CEANE (in Dutch, Kraan ; Old German, Krstin ; cog-nate, as 

 also the Latin Grus, and consequently the French Grue and Spanish 

 Grulla, Avith the Greek yepavos), the Grus comrnunls or G. cinerea of 

 ornithologists, one of the largest Wading-birds, and formerly a 

 native of England, where Turner, in 1544, said that he had very 

 often seen its young (" earum pipiones ssepissime vidi "). Notwith- 

 standing the protection aftbrded it by sundry Acts of Parliament, 

 it has long since ceased from breeding in this country. Sir T. 

 Browne (ob. 1682) speaks of it as being found in the open parts of 

 Norfolk in winter. In Kay's time it was only known as occurring 

 at the same season in large flocks in the fens of Lincolnshire and 

 Cambridgeshire ; and though mention is made of Cranes' eggs and 

 young in the fen-laws passed at a court held at Revesby in 1780, 

 this was most likely but the formal repetition of an older edict ;. 



