38 Monograph of the Cranes. 



through all sorts of pecuHar evolutions in the air. Sometimes several pairs come 

 together and go through these performances collectively by jumping up, stooping 

 down, flapping their wings, and bending their heads, &c. The first young were taken 

 by me about Hanka on the 19th May. Rowley's Oniith. Misc., vol. ii., p. 4.36.] 



It is remarked by Kaempferj in his " History of Japan " (an English 

 translation of w^hich was published in 1727), that 



Wildfowl, though naturally shy, are in this populous country grown so familiar, that 

 many kinds of them might be ranked among the tame. The tsuri, or crane, is the 

 chief of the wild birds of the country, and hath this particular imperial privilege, that 

 nobody may shoot him without an express order from the emperor, and only for the 

 emperor's own pleasure or use. In Saikokf, however, and other provinces remote 

 from court, a less strict regard is had to the like imperial commands. Tbe cranes and 

 tortoises are reckoned very happy animals in themselves, and thought to portend good 

 luck to others, and this by reason of their pretended [?] long and fabulous life, of 

 which there are several remarkable instances in their historical writings. For this 

 reason the imperial apartments, walls of temples, and other happy places are commonly 

 adorned with figures of them, as also with figures of firs and bamboos for the like 

 reason. I never heard country people and carriers call this bird otherwise than 

 Tsurisama, that is, " my great lord crane." There are two difierent kinds, one white 

 as snow, the other grey or ash-coloured. 



Three other species are as equally well known in Japan as the White- 

 naped crane, namely, G. leucogerarms, G. communis, and G. monachus. 



In the species which follow the tertiaries are broad, and are somewhat 

 curved, but are not elongated or drooping, though they are arched to some 

 extent, and more or less so according to the species. 



GRUS LEUCOGERANUS (Pall.). 



ASIATIC WHITE CRANE. 



Geds leocogeranus. Pall. Reise Russ. Reich., vol. ii., p. 138 et Auhang, 



p. 714, Tab. 41. (1773.) 

 Aedea gigantea, S. G. Gmel. Reise durch Russl., vol. ii., p. 189. (1774.) 

 Geus gigantea, Vieill. Nouv. Diet., vol. xiii., p. 558. (1817.) 

 Gkus leucogeeana, Temm. & Schl. Fauna Jap., p. 118. (1850.) 

 Geds leucogeeands, Temm. & Sch. op. cit., pi. 73. (1850.) (Young.) 

 Antigone leucogeeands, Reichenb. Syst. Av., pis. 214, 217. (1852.) 

 Leucogekanus giganteus, Bp. Cat. Parzud., p. 9. (1856.) 



Although so long ago described, and universally admitted as a species 

 on the authority of Pallas and others, very little was satisfactorily known 



