378 GOWK—GRACKLE 
1776 by Sonnerat (Voy. Nouv. Guinée, pl. 104) to the Great- 
Crowned PiGEON, Columba coronata of Linneus, 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 wing-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 Fraser (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. 
Papuas. iii. pp. 191-209). The species of Goura are the largest of 
the existing Columbe. 
GOWK (Dan. Gjgg; Norsk. Gjgk ; Swed. Gok), a common name 
of the Cuckow in the northern part of Britain. 
GRACKLE (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 Sturnidx 
(STARLING) belonging to the Old World, and Jcteridx 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 
Gracula religiosa of Linnzeus, who, according to Jerdon and others, 
was very probably led to confer this epithet upon it by confound- 
ing it with the Sturnus or Acrido- 
theres tristis,?, which is regarded by 
the Hindus as sacred to Ram Deo, 
one of their deities, while the true 
Gracula religiosa does not seem to 
be anywhere held in veneration. 
This last is about 10 inches in 
length, clothed in a plumage of 
glossy black, with purple and green reflexions, and a conspicuous 
patch of white on the quill-feathers of the wings. The bill is 
GRACULA RELIGIOSA, (After Swainson.) 
1 Some old writers translated Water-Crow, or its equivalent in their own 
language, by Graculus marinus, whereby Linneus was originally led to make 
Graculus the name of a genus containing the CorMOoRANT 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 Acridotheres and Temenuchus are 
considered to be the true Mynas, and the species of Gracula are called ‘‘ Hill 
Mynas ” by way of distinction. 
