378 GO WK—GRA CKLE 



1776 by Sonnerat {Voy. Nouv. Gtiinde, pi. 104) to the Great- 

 Crowned Pigeon, Columba coronata of Linnaeus, given by Stephens 

 in 1819 {Gen. Zool. xi. p. 119) to a genus, and by him and others 

 used also as an English word. The species inhabits New Guinea 

 and some of the neighbouring islands, whence it has been frequently 

 brought alive to Europe, and though it has even bred in captivity, 

 it has as yet evinced no readiness to domestication, which is to be 

 regretted when we consider its large size and the becoming appear- 

 ance it makes with its erect crest, its colouring of lavender-grey 

 with a chestnut mantle and white Aving-patch, to say nothing of its 

 stately gait. A second and even finer species, G. victoria, now 

 known to come from the islands of Jobie and Missorie, was de- 

 scribed by Eraser {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1846, p. 136), and since then 

 three, or perhaps four, others, all from the Papuan Subregion, if not 

 from New Guinea itself, have been discovered (Salvadori, Ornitol. 

 Pajyuas. iii. pp. 191-209). The species of Goura are the largest of 

 the existing Columhx. 



GOWK (Dan. Gj(j)g ; Norsk. Gj^h ; Swed. Gok), a common name 

 of the CUCKOW in the northern part of Britain. 



GEACKLE (Latin, Gracculus or Graculus, a Daw ^), a word 

 which has been much used in ornithology, but generally in a vague 

 sense, though restricted to members of the Families Sturnidse 

 (Starling) belonging to the Old World, and Icteridx belonging to 

 the New. Of the former those to which it has been most com- 

 monly applied are the species variously known as Mynas, Mainas, 

 and Minors of India and the adjacent countries, and especially the 

 G)'acula religiosa of Linnaeus, who, according to Jerdon and others, 

 was very probably led to confer this epithet upon it by confound- 

 ing it with the Sturnvs or Acrido- 

 theres tristis,'^ which is regarded by 

 J the Hindus as sacred to Earn Deo, 

 one of their deities, while the true 

 Gramla religiosa does not seem to 

 be anywhere held in veneration. 

 ,.,,„., This last is about 10 inches in 



Gracula religiosa. (After Swamson.) i i , i i • ^ e 



length. Clothed in a plumage oi 

 glossy black, with purple and green reflexions, and a conspicuous 

 patch of white on the quill-feathers of the wings. The bill is 



^ Some old writers translated Water-Crow, or its equivalent in their own 

 language, by Graculus viarinics, wliereby Linniuus was originally led to make 

 Graculus the name of a genus containing the Cormorant and its like ; and 

 though he afterwards corrected the mistake, certain systematists continued to 

 use the name in its erroneous sense. 



- By some writers the birds of the genera Acridotkercs and Tcmenuchus are 

 considered to be the true Mynas, and the species of Gracula are called " Hill 

 Mynas " by way of distinction. 



