340 GRUIDZ. 
THE OYSTER CATCHER. 
Length, 16 to 17; wing, 10; tail, 4; tarsus, 2; bill at front, 4 
Bill orange-yellow, dusky on culmen ; irides crimson-red; eye- 
lids orange, with a small space of the lower eyelid plumed and 
white. 
Whole head and neck, upper back, wings and tail, black ; 
lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower plumage from the 
breast, white ; a broad wing-band formed by the greater-coverts 
also white. 
Young birds are less pure black, with pale edges to the 
feathers, and after the first moult they are said to have a white 
collar all round the neck. 
The Oyster Catcher is a cold weather visitant, and occurs 
all along the coast, but is not found inland. 
Famity, Gruida. 
Bill short, stout, straight, slightly cleft, somewhat like that _of 
the Bustards ; legs scutellated ; wings ample; of large size, with 
pale grey or white plumage, and with a long neck. 
Grnvs, Grus, Lin. 
Bill moderately long, straight, somewhat thick ; mandibles nearly 
equal, compressed, with the tip subulate ; nostrils apert, placed 
near the middle of the billin a broad and deep groove closed 
posteriorly by membrane ; wings long, ample ; third quill longest ; 
tail short ; tibia much denuded; tarsi lengthened, scutellated in 
front ; toes short, strong ; nails blunt; hallux short, raised. 
Grus antigone, Lin. 
863.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 662; Butler, Guzerat, 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 14; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of 
Sind, p. 235; Game Birds of India, Vol. III, p. 1; Swinhoe 
and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 133. 
THE SARUS. 
Length, 52; expanse, 96; wing, 26; tail, 9°25; tarsus, 12 to 
13; bill at front, 6°25; weight, 17 to 18lbs. 
Bill pale sea-green, brownish at tip ; irides orange-red; legs and 
feet pale rosy-red. ; 
Head and neck naked and covered for three or four inches with 
numerous crimson papille, clad with a few scant black hairs, 
which accumulate into a broad ring on the neck and forma sort: 
of mane down the nape of the neck; ear-coverts white ; below 
this the neck is whitish-grey, which gradually passes into the 
pale blue or French-grey, which is the color of the whole plu- 
mage, the quills and inner webs of the tail-feathers being 
slaty. 
At the breeding season they assume a pure white collar, imme- 
diately below the crimson papillose skin of the neck, which also 
