848 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PALUDICOL.E — GR UES. 



geranus) leucogeranus, the great White Crane of Asia ; G. (Antigone) antigone, of India ; G. 

 (A.) australasiana; and G. (Pseudogeranus) leucauchen, of Asia. 



Analysis of Species. 

 Adult white, with black primaries. Nakedness extending backward in points on top and sides of head. (Subgenus 



LiMNOGERANUs) americona 



Adults gray. Nakedness forked on top of head by a point of feathers, and not reaching on side below eye. (Grus 

 proper.) 



Smaller : wing under 20.00 ; bill 4.00 or less ; tarsus 8.50 or less canadensis 



Larger : wing over 20.00 ; bill 5.00 or more ; tarsus 9.00 or more mexicana 



(Subgenus Limnogeranus.) 

 G. america'na. White Crane. Whooping Crane. Adult with hare part of head 

 extending in a point on occiput above, on each side below eyes, and hairy. Bill very stout, 

 gonys convex, ascending, that part of the under mandible as deep as the upper opposite it. 

 Adult plumage pure white, with black primaries, primary coverts and alula; bill dusky green- 

 ish ; legs black ; head carmine, the hair-like feathers blackish ; iris yellow. Young with the 

 head feathered ; general plumage whitish varied with rusty-brown. Length 50 inches or rather 

 more; extent about 90.00; wing 24.00; tail 9.00; tarsus 12.00; middle toe 5.00; bill 6.00, its 

 depth at base about 1.40. In the adult, the windpipe is quite as long as the bird itself — 50 

 inches or more, and over two feet of it is coiled away in the keel of the breast-bone, which is 

 entirely hollowed out to receive these extraordinary convolutions (fig. 99) ; the voice is singu- 

 larly raucous and resonant. Temperate interior North America, but of irregular distribution, 

 not well made out; said to have been common in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, and to 

 have extended up the coast to the Middle States. Now scarcely known in the Eastern and 

 Middle States. The chief line of migration appears to be in the interior, along the Mississippi 

 Valley ; Mexico, Florida, and Texas to Minnesota and Dakotas, where the bird breeds (as well 

 as farther southward), and thence spreading in the interior of the Fur Countries, as in Mani- 

 toba, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan. So wild and wary a bird must be much influenced by 

 settlement of the country. Eggs 2 (or 3?), about 3.75-4.05 X 2..50-2.G5, light brownish-drab, 

 rather sparsely marked, except at great end, with large irregular spots of dull chocolate-brown 

 and lighter reddish -brown, with paler obscure shell-markings ; sliell rough, with numerous 

 warty elevations, and punctulate. G. clamator Bartr. 1791. G. struthio Wagl. 1827. G. 

 hoyanus Dudley, 1854. Limnogeranus amerieanus Sharpe, 1893. 



(Subgenus Guvs.) 

 G. eanadeu'sis. (Of Canada.) Northern Brown Crane. Little Brown Crane. 

 General character of the species next to be described ; nakedness of head and color of plumage 

 substantially the same. Smaller: length about 3 feet; wing 18.00-19.00; tail 7.00; tarsus 

 6.75-8.50; bill along culmen 3.00-4.00! its depth at base 0.75; middle toe scarcely 3.00; tibia 

 bare about 3.00. Supposed to be confined in breeding season to Arctic and northern Nortli 

 America from Hudson's Bay to Alaslca, thence migrating through western U. S. to western 

 Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southward in Mexico. (Supposed to be true canadensis 

 Linn. 1758, ex Edw. pi. 133, 1750. G. fratercidus Cass.) 



G. mexica'iia. (Of Mexico.) Southern Brown or Sand-hill Crane. Common Brown 

 or Sand-hill Crane. Adult with bare part of head forking behind to receive a pointed ex- 

 tension of occipital feathers, not reaching on sides below eyes, and sparsely hairy. Bill moder- 

 ately stout, with nearly straight and scarcely ascending gonys, that part of under mandible not 

 so deep as the upper at the same place. Adult plumage plumbeous-gray, never whitening ; 

 primaries, their coverts, and alula, ashy-brown, little darker than the general plumage, shafts 

 of primaries white. Young with head feathered, and plumage varied with rusty-brown, long 

 persistent in full-grown birds. Nestlings quite reddish. Smaller than americana; larger than 

 canadensis; length 3| to 4 feet, averaging about 44.00 inches; extent 80.00; wing 22.00; tail 



