ANTHROPOIDES. 121 



149. AnthrOpoideS virgO {Linn.), Bodd. Tab. PL Enl. 241 ; 

 Ediv. B. pi. 134; Jerd., B. hid. iii. p, 666; Murray, Hdbk., Zool. ^"c, 

 Sind ] Hume, Str. F. iv. p. IS ; Murray, Vert. Zool. St'nd, p. 237; id., Avif. 

 Brit. Ind.\\. p. 602, No. 1282. — The Demoiselle Crane. 



Forehead, lores, sides of the face, chin, throat, neck in front, and breast 

 plumes deep black ; ear tufts white, issuing from behind the eye ; primaries 

 black ; secondaries grey, black tipped ; back, scapulars, tertials, upper tail 

 coverts and entire lower surface pale blue grey ; tertials elongated and 

 drooping over the primaries and tail feathers ; most of them with a broad 

 black tip. 



Length. — 31 to 35 inches ; wing 19 to 20 or more ; tail 6 to 7-5 ; tarsus 7 ; 

 bill from gape 27 to 3*05 ; tertiaries project about 6 inches beyond the 

 primaries. 



Hab. — Throughout the greater part of India ; rare in Sind. Occurs in Raj- 

 putana, Kutch, Kattiawar, N. Guzerat, Deccan, the Nizam's dominions, where 

 it is rare ; also in Assam, N.-W. and Central Provinces, Central India, Khan- 

 deish and Oudh. Occurs also in Afghanistan and Beluchistan and probably 

 also in Persia. In the Deccan, about the Satara and Belgaum districts, as 

 well as in the Concan and South India, it is said to be fairly common, 

 arriving about December. There is a difference of opinion in regard to the 

 fitness of the Crane for the table. Most persons never lose an opportunity of 

 tasting the flesh, if there is nothing better, and being a bird seldom got at 

 without much trouble and stalking, the most is made of it. 



Tribe, LONGIROSTRES.-O/z;. 



A family of wading birds, in which Cuvier includes the snipe, godwits 

 ibises, curlews, phalaropes, &c., at the end of which come the avocets. These 

 are nearly all migratory birds, and associate in flocks during winter. The 

 characters by which this tribe is chiefly distinguished are the long slender bill, 

 and long and pointed wings ; the hind toe is usually present but wanting in 

 some. 



Family, SCOLOPACID^. 



Bill long, straight, compressed, soft, the point enlarged ; the mandibles 

 furrowed for half their length; upper mandible slightly longer than the lower; 

 nostrils lateral, situated basally in a groove and covered by membrane ; feet 

 moderate, slender, three toed, not webbed; hind toe present; plumage varied 

 and rich. All the species are much esteemed as food. 



IG B 



