6 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Family GRUIDAE : Cranes 



=JErophoni Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 59. 



— Gruidae Bonaparte, Coiisp. Gen. Av., ii, 18.j7 [1854], 97.— Baird, Rep. Pacific 



R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 651, 653.— Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868-75, 342. 

 =Gruid.'B LirxjEBORG, Proc. 23ool, Soc. Loud., 1866, 445.— Baird, Brewer, and 



RiDQWAY, Water Birds Nortli Amer., i, 1884, 350, 403.— Coues, Key Nortli 



Amer. Birds, ed. 2, 1884, 066.— Stbineger, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 123. 



— American Ornithologists' Union, Check List, 1886, 138; 3d ed., 1910, 



100.— Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiii, 1894, xii, 248 ; Hand-list, i, 1899, 



xvi, 176. — SAL\^N and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, iii, 1903, 335. — 



Wetmore, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Ixxvi, 1930, art. 24, 4; Smiths. Misc. Coll., 



Ixxxix, No. 13, 1934, 6 ; xcix. No. 7, 1940, 6. 

 =Gruinae Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 1857 [1854], 97. — Furbringer, Unters. 



Morph. Syst. Yog., ii, 1888, 1566.— Gadow, Bronn's Thier Reichs, Vog., ii, 



1891, 184. 

 =Grues American Ornithologists' Union, Check List, 1886, 138. — Sharpe, 



Rev. Rec. Att. Classif. Birds, 1891, 74; Hand-list, i, 1899, xvi, 176. 

 <Grueae Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 1857 [1854]. 97 (genera Grus, Antigone, 



and Lencoincdontia ) . 

 <Authropoideae Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 18.57 [1854], 97 (genera 



Tetrapteryx, Anthropoides, and Balearica)- 

 =Psophiidaj Mathews, Birds Australia, iii, pt. 4, 1913, 373. 

 =Megalornithidae Wetmore and Miller (W. deW.), Auk, xliii, 1926, 341. 



Large, long-legged and long-necked Grues with the hallux small 

 (much shorter than basal phalanx of middle toe) and elevated; mid- 

 dle toe less than half as long as tarsus ; bill elongated (but much shorter 

 than tarsus), straight, nongalline; femorocaudal muscle present (ex- 

 cept in Balearica), and with head partly naked (except in young) or 

 else adorned with ornamental plumes. 



As additional anatomical characters, it may be stated that the oil 

 gland is tufted; rectrices 12 in number; fused dorsal vertebrae 2-3; 

 hypapophyses on cervical vertebrae only, these 19-20; spina externa 

 sterni present; and that the wing is diastataxic. 



Although bearing some superficial resemblance to the larger herons 

 and storks, the cranes are very different structurally and far more 

 nearly related to the rails. They are omnivorous but are mainly vege- 

 table feeders, eating grain and tender herbage as well as mice and 

 other forms of animal life. 



The family has no representatives in South America, in the Malayan 

 Archipelago, or in Polynesia. Two peculiar genera occur in Africa. 

 The remaining genera are Palearctic, Nearctic, and Australian, one 

 only occurring in North America, represented by two species. 



Genus GRUS Pallas 



Orus Patxar, Misc. Zool., 1766, 66. (Type, by tautonyniy, Ardea grns Linnaeus.) 

 Pseudogeranus Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, i, 1893, xxxvii. (Type, Orus 

 leucaucJien Temminck. ) 



