254 GRUIFORMES CHAP. 
resembling beef-steak. Cranes are easily domesticated, and, in 
certain districts of India, in Japan, and among the Kalmuks, they 
are held in reverence, though elsewhere they are often killed for 
the sake of their decorative plumes. 
Grus communis, the Common Crane of Europe and Northern 
Asia, which used to breed in Britain until the end of the sixteenth 
century, and reaches North Africa, India, and China on the winter 
migration, is ashy-grey, with white cheeks, nape, and sides of the 
neck, black primaries and inner secondaries ; the crown being bare, 
with blackish bristles and red warty skin. G. li/fordi of East 
Siberia is a lighter race. G. canadensis is a smaller species, hardly 
different from G. mexicana, the “Sandhill Crane” of the United 
States, which is slaty-grey, with a brownish wash. G. monachus, 
another similar form from Eastern Asia, has all the head white 
except the bare portion. G. nigricollis of Koko-nor has the feathered 
part of the head, the upper neck, the wings, tail, and imner second- 
aries black; G. japonensis of North Eastern Asia is white, with 
erey-black throat and fore-neck, the dark colour extending to a 
point on the hind-neck. G. (Limnogeranus) americana, the Whoop- 
ing Crane of the United States and Mexico, is pure white with 
black primaries, the bristly head, lores, and cheeks being bare, 
and covered with warty red skin. G. (Sarcogeranus) leucogeranus, 
the Asiatic White Crane, is entirely white, except for the black 
primaries, and has all the front of the head bare, the red skin 
extending beyond the eye, and showing a few scattered hairs. 
This bird ranges at certain seasons. to South-East Europe. 
G. (Antigone) collaris of India and the Caspian is light grey, with 
brownish-black primaries, a white ring round the lower neck, 
and white inner secondaries ; the grey-green crown is bare, the 
occiput and upper neck are red and papillose, with black bristles 
on the latter. The Burmo-Malay G. sharpii is distinguished by the 
absence of white; while both enjoy in common the name 
“Sarus.”  G. (4.) australasiana, the “ Native Companion ” of East 
Australia, has the neck feathered, and possesses a red and green 
gular pouch, covered with the same black hairs as the face, the 
general coloration resembling that of its congeners. — 4. (Pseudo- 
geranus) leucauchen, the “Tan-cho” or national ,Crane of the 
Japanese, so often seen in their clever drawings, is grey, with 
white hind-crown, nape, throat, and inner secondaries; the rest 
of the wing-quills and the tip of the tail are black, the fore- 
