156 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
130. ANTIGONE SHARPI Blanford. 
SHARQ®’S CRANE. 
Antigone antigone (not Ardea antigone LINN®US) SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. 
Mus. (1894), 23, 264. : 
Antigone sharpti BLANForRD, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1895), 5, 6. 
Antigone sharpei SHARPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 178; Oares, Cat. Birds’ 
Eggs (1902), 2, 94; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 11, 
pl. 2; McGrecor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 31. 
Tipol, Luzon. 
Luzon (McGregor, Worcester). Burma, Cochin China, and Malay Peninsula. 
Adult.—Nearly uniform pearl-gray, lighter on neck; head and neck 
nearly naked to 100 mm. or more below anterior border of ear-coverts; 
a few gray feathers on chin and ear-coverts; a few scattered black hair- 
like feathers on upper throat and its sides. 
An adult female taken in Nueva Ecija Province, Luzon, in Septem- 
ber, yields the following data: Legs rose-pink, brown along the tarsi; nails 
blackish; most of bill and forehead pale dirty green; tip of bill gray; 
iris yellow; papillose parts of head and neck red, darker behind the ear- 
coverts. Weight, 5 kilos. Length, 1,270; extent, 2,200; wing, 565; tail, 
220; culmen from base, 178; bill from front margin of nostril, 103; 
tarsus, 275; middle toe with claw, 117; hind toe with claw, 24. Another 
specimen from northern Luzon measures; culmen from base, 160; bill 
from nostril, 92; tarsus, 280; middle toe with claw, 107. 
Sharpe’s crane is abundant in the vicinity of Cabanatuan, Nueva Kcija 
Province, Luzon. When I observed them in September, 1908, they were 
feeding in pairs and frequenting a grassy plain. ‘Two badly decayed eggs 
were taken from a nest which consisted of a little grass arranged on the 
ground in circular form. The eggs are white marked with a few lavender 
spots and dented with numerous, small, elongated pits. The surface is 
hard and smooth, very slightly glossy, and with a few small lumps about 
the larger end. When held toward the light the shell appears through 
the hole to be dark green. These eggs measure 91.5 by 63 and 97.5 
by 64.6. 
This species has been reported from the Candaba Swamp in central 
Luzon and Worcester found it abundant in northern Luzon. He says: 
“T saw Antigone sharpei in large numbers in Cagayan and Isabela during 
my recent trip, 1906, through those provinces. I am informed that 
these birds nest on the ground in May, contenting themselves with 
scraping together and flattening down a little grass on which to deposit 
their eggs. About August they lose their long wing-feathers and when 
in this conditions can rise but a few feet from the ground. The people 
of Isabela then pursue them on horseback and take them with lassoes, 
although according to the statements of the hunters the birds, aided by 
their wings, run about as fast as deer.” 
