CRA B-PLOVER—CRANE 109 
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 
belonging to the Ploceidx (WEAVER-BIRD), and is found throughout 
India, Ceylon, and Burma, 
CRAB-PLOVER, the Anglo-Indian name for 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 figured by Paykull in 1805 (K. Vet.-Acad. N. 
Handl. xxvi. pp. 182-190, pl. 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 urged 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. Néerl. 1868, pp. 281- 
295), that it properly belongs to that polymorphic group of Lm 
COL&, which comprises the genera Hxmuatopus (OYSTER-CATCHER), 
Himantopus (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 with Chionis 
(SHEATHBILL) a surviving link between the Charadriidz and the 
Laridz is very great. For its habit of breeding in burrows in sand- 
hills, see Hume, Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, ed. 2, iii. pp. 327-330. 
CRACKER, a name of the Prntatn, Dajila acuta. 
CRAKE (Lat. Crez), generally with a prefix, as Corn-CRAKE, a 
common name of the Land-RaIL, and often used for others of the 
fallidx, in which the bill is comparatively short. 
CRANE (in Dutch, Kraan; Old German, Kren; cognate, as 
also the Latin Grus, and consequently the French Grue and Spanish 
Grulla, with the Greek yépavos), the Grus communis 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 sxpissime vidi”). Notwith- 
standing the protection afforded it by sundry Acts of Parliament, 
it has long since ceased from breeding in this country. Sir T. 
Browne (0b. 1682) speaks of it as being found in the open parts of 
Norfolk in winter. In Ray’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 ; 
