36 Monograph of the Cranes. 



though the somewhat lengthened and attenuated tertiaries are both more 

 lengthened and much whiter in the male than in the female. 



The White-naped Crane is distinctly and incontestably the species 

 described by Pallas as Grus antigone [but which name had previously been 

 given to another species] . He describes it to inhabit the watery districts of 

 Dauria, especially about the Argun and Dalai-noor, where the Common 

 Crane is likewise met with. It is said to make its appearance sometimes in 

 the Astrakhan desert, and in those of Great Tartary, for it is not unknown 

 to the Kirghiz. According to Pallas, this bird is never gregarious, (!) 

 — he must surely mean in the breeding season ; but the kindred Saras 

 cranes of India are oftener seen in pairs than in small flocks. This bird is 

 the sacred crane of the Japanese, which is so very generally represented in 

 its various picturesque attitudes in their works of art : [see vignette on 

 page 13.] It also occurs in the north of China, having been noticed by Pere 

 David to pass in small numbers along the mountains of Seuen-hwa-foo. It 

 is likewise enumerated among the birds of Dauria, of Amur-land, and of 

 Eastern Siberia (Journ. f. Orn., 1870, pp. 175, 310). The London Zoolo- 

 gical Society received the first ever brought alive to this country, though 

 the species had been previously exhibited in the Amsterdam vivarium. In 

 the paddock in which they are placed they can be seen to great advantage, 

 and their trumpeting cry may frequently be heard, at each utterance 

 of which they raise the tips of their wings towards the head in a very 

 remarkable manner. 



[The pair first received are represented in a most characteristic and 

 truthful manner in the folding plate.] 



Sir Rutherford Alcock, describing the Daimios' quarter at Yeddo 



(" The Capital of the Tycoon, &c.," vol. i., p. 131), remarks : 



Here are fine open spaces, not less than fifty feet in width, lined on one side with the 

 open huildings and great massive-looking gateways of the Daimios' residences, and 

 those of the high officers in the employment of the government ; and on the other 

 by the large deep moats fed by tributary rivers, in which at this season of the year 

 [winter] thousands of wildfowl lie undisturbed. It being death to molest or shoot them, 

 they are so secure that it is almost impossible to get them up ; but if for a moment they 

 are startled they rise like a dark cloud from the water, in immense numbers. In the 

 more shallow parts the sacred ibis of Egypt [or rather a kindred species to that of 

 Nubia and Abyssinia, not of Egypt in the wild state] solemnly picks his way and his 

 food, enjoying, as an emblem of happiness and longevity with the Japanese, quite as 

 much sanctity as in the land of the Pharaohs. With the agriculturalists the whole race 

 of storks, cranes, and paddy-birds, of which there are great numbers, are in much favour 

 (partly, no doubt, for their useful qualities) ; and they may often be seen in twos and 

 threes following the plough with the greatest gravity, close at the heels of the peasant, 

 picking the worms out of the fresh upturned earth and making their morning meal, 

 equally to his advantage and their own. 



But Sir Rutherford Alcock misapplies the name of stork to the cranes : 



I have already remarked (he writes) on the semi-worship of the stork [meaning 

 the crane] by the Japanese. They are the favourite objects of artistic skill in every 



