192 GRUIDzE. 



birds have less variation in colour about the head ; the 

 ash-grey plumage of the body is mixed with dull brown, 

 and the elongated plumes of the hinder parts are com- 

 paratively undeveloped. They do not breed until their 

 third year. 



A male example of the Numidian or Demoiselle Crane 

 {Grus virgo), was shot at Deerness, East Mainland, Orkney, 

 on May 14th, 1863, and a companion bird was pursued, but 

 not obtained (Zool. 1863, p. 8692). The above specimen 

 subsequently became the property of Mr. W. Christy Hors- 

 fall, of Horsforth-Low Hall, near Leeds. In ' Science 

 Gossip ' of March 1st, 1876, is the brief statement that 

 another example of this species was picked up dead on the 

 banks of the river Cale, near Wincanton, Somersetshire. 

 The Demoiselle Crane is a bird which has a wide range 

 through Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe, and it has been 

 recorded as having occurred during the last half century : 

 once in Silesia, twice in Sweden, and once in Heligoland : 

 it is also a species frequently kept in confinement, and there 

 is a possibility that the individual in question may have 

 escaped. The late Mr. Gould has not included it in his 

 ' Birds of Great Britain ' ; and it has been placed in 

 brackets by the Committee of the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, entrusted with the compilation of the ' List of 

 British Birds.' 



A specimen of the Balearic Crane {Balearica pavonina) 

 was recorded by Mr. R. Gray (Ibis, 1872, p. 201), who 

 examined the specimen, as having been shot near Dairy, in 

 Ayrshire, on the 17th September, 1871. This, again, is a 

 bird often kept in confinement, and which even as a strag- 

 gler has seldom, if indeed ever, visited the northern shores 

 of the Mediterranean ; its home being Northern and Western 

 Africa. 



