J aXi^ Jo yde 6^ (TurtuJ- i/itu^ ( /'MmAiea 



1 1 8 \ CRO WN-BIRD— C UCKO W 



of this species, ready to dispute with the Kites and the cooks the 

 very meat at the fire ; and when any lengthened settlement is 

 established the Crows will build their nests of the wire from the 

 Englishman's soda-water bottles. 



CROWN-BIRD, the name given by some old African travellers 

 to one or more species of Touraco (c/. Latham, G&n. Hist. B. v. 



CUBITALS (or Secondaries) 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 Trochi- 

 lidse and is increased to 30 and more in some Tubinares ; it 

 stands in direct correlation with the length of the wing bones. 

 Archseopteryx 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, G-adow, and Sclater {P.Z.S. 1887, p. 343 ; 1888, p. 655 ; 

 and Ihis, 1890, p. 77). Contrary to expectation, the missing fifth 

 quill shews 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. This peculiarity is still 

 unexplained. Wray proposed to call the birds with the fifth quill 

 normally developed quincubital, those without it aquincubital ! 



Among the Ratitse with well -developed cubitals, are Struthio, 

 Rhea, and Apteryx ; and among the Carinatse, Psophia, Dicholophus, 

 and Rhinochetus ; the Gallinae except the Megapodes ; the Turnices 

 and Crypturi ; Opisthocomus, all the Picariae after exclusion of the 

 Psittaci; all the Passeres, Colius, Trochilidae, and Caprimulginse 

 possess the fifth cubital. In the Alcedinidse and some Cypselidse 

 it is variable. 



The groups with typically-developed remiges that have no fifth 

 cubital are Anseres (including Palamedea), Colymbidse, Podicipedidse, 

 Steganopodes, Tubinares, Herodii, Pelargi, Laro-Limicolse, Grus, 

 Aramus, Eurypyga, all the Fulicarise (except Psophia, Dicholophus, 

 and Rhinochetus), the Pteroclidse, Columbidse, Accipitres, Psittaci, 

 and Striges (also see Pterylosis). 



CUCKOW, or Cuckoo, as the word is now genei-ally spelt — 

 though without any apparent warrant for the change except that 

 accorded by custom, while some of the more scholarly English 

 ornithologists, as Montagu and Jenyns, have kept the older form — 

 the common name of a well-known and often-heard bird, the Cuculus 



