Introduction. 



13 



closely. Neither do I perceive any very decided near kinship to the Gruidce 

 on the part either of DicJwlophns or Ftio^thia, both of which genera have 

 been currently regarded as being considerably akin to the cranes. As a 

 group the Gnddce stand very much alone, and the more I have studied them 

 the more strongly impressed have I become vs-ith this opinion. The resem- 

 blance of most of the cranes to the trumpeter group of swans consists not 

 only in the fact of the trachea undergoing a convolution within the keel of 

 the breast-bone, but also in the rusty edgings of the feathers of the young 

 birds, as likewise observed in very many of the ordinary Anatidte. 



[In relation to the affinities of the Gruidw, Professor Newton remarks : — 

 (Encycl. Brit., art. Crane.) 



Thougli by many systematists placed near or even among the Herons, there is no 

 doubt that the cranes have only a superficial resemblance and no real affinity to the 

 ArdeidcB. In fact the Gruidce form a somewhat isolated group. Professor Huxley has 

 included them together wil.h the RallidcB in \i\% GerauomorpluB ; but a more extended 

 view of their various characters would probably assign them rather as relatives of the 

 Bustards — not that it must be thought that the two families have not been for a very 

 long time distinct. Grns, indeed is a very ancient form, its remains appearing in the 

 Miocene of France and Greece, as well as in the Pliocene and Post -pliocene of North 

 America. In France, too, during the " Reindeer Period" there existed a huge species 

 — the G. primigenia of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards —which has doubtless been long 

 extinct."] 



The Sacred Okane of Japan. 



