GRUIDiE. 665 



Young birds want the naked patch on the head, the neck is dingy 

 grey without any white, and the colours generally are more dull. 



The common Crane of Europe visits India in numerous flocks 

 during the cold weather. In the Deccan and Central India it is 

 generally seen in small flocks of from six or eight to twenty, now 

 and then in much larger numbers, especially in the Punjab and the 

 N. W. Provinces. It feeds chiefly on grain, committing great 

 havoc in the wheat fields, and in rice fields in Bengal, but it also 

 eats shoots of plants and flowers, and occasionally, it is said, insects 

 and reptiles. On one occasion, I found that the flowers of Carthamus 

 tinctorius had been the only food partaken of ; it is stated 

 in China to devour sweet potatoes. It feeds chiefly in the 

 morning, and rests during the day in some river or tank, returning 

 to the fields for a short time in the afternoon. It has a fine loud 

 trumpet-like call chiefly heard during its flight. It leaves this 

 country early, generally before the end of March, and breeds in 

 Northern Asia and Europe, in marshy ground generally, occasion- 

 ally it is said, on the roofs of deserted houses. The eggs are two 

 in number, of a greenish colour, with some brownish spots ; and 

 Mr. Wolly, in the 1st vol. of the Ibis, has given an interesting 

 account of its nidification. In former years it used to visit Eng- 

 land regularly and even to breed there. 



This Crane is occasionally hawked at and killed by a good 

 Bhi/ri (Falco peregrinvs), and gives a fine chase. It is tolerably 

 good eating, though not equal to the next species ; it was considered 

 a great delicacy by our ancestors. It inhabits the greater part 

 of Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, but is replaced in North- 

 eastern Asia and Japan by a species with a longer bill, G. 

 Jongirostris. Other Cranes are G. vipio, Pallas, {leucanchen, Temm.), 

 and G. monacha, Temminck, both from North-eastern Asia and 

 Japan. There are also two species from North America, Grus 

 canadensis, and G. americana. Grus carunculata of Africa is 

 the type of Laomedontia of Eeichenbach. 



Gen. Anthropoides, Vieillot. 

 Syn. Scops, apud Gray. 



Bill shorter than in Grus, depressed at the base, and slightly 

 swollen at the tip ; tarsus lengthened ; head and neck densely 

 PART II. 4 P 



