Ortos collaris. 48 



uppermost of them being a little discomposed. In their habits they do not 

 tend much to be gregarious nor migratory, nor do they feed so much on 

 grain as do the cranes of the 0. cornmunis section. In fact, the occasional 

 flocks of them would appear to consist of unmated birds of the preceding 

 season, as in G. leucogeranus. In the two of them which inhabit India the 

 nude papillose skin is much more developed than in any other, extending 

 over about a fourth of the neck. 



All three have been confounded under the specific name antigone. It is 

 probable that the following remark of Professor Huxley is of generic 

 application to most, if not all, of the species which I here associate as 

 constituting the Saras sub-group. In his remarks on the classification of 

 birds {Pr. Zool. 8oc., 1867, p. 430) it is stated that " the cranes almost 

 always lack the basipterygoid processes and the corresponding facets 

 upon the pterygoids, the only exceptions I have met with being Grus 

 antigone." 



GRUS COLLARIS (Bodd.). 

 THE COLLARED CRANE. 

 Grds collaeis, Bodd. Tab. des Planches Enlumin., p. 52. (1773.) 

 Grue a Collieb, Bufi". PI. Enlum., pi. 865. (1783.) 

 Gkus tokquata, Viell. Gal. des Ois., vol. ii., p. 142, pi. 256. (1834.) 

 Antigone tokquata, Reich. Syst. Avium., p. XXIII. 



[Mr. Blyth described this species under the name of Grus torquata, Viell., 

 but Mr. P. L. Sclater writes : 



I agree with Mr. Blyth that this is probably a good and distinct species, though 

 nearly allied to Grus antigone. There were five living specimens in the Amsterdam 

 Gardens in the year 1877, but we have not had it represented in the Regent's Park. If 

 the Grue a collier of the Planches Enluminees (No. 865) is intended for it, it should 

 bear the name Grus collaris, Boddaert.] 



This is the Saras crane of Upper India, Bengal, Assam, and Burma. It 

 is larger and stands proportionately higher on the legs than the others, from 

 which it is further distinguished by its broad and pure white nuchal ring, 

 and by its albescent, almost pure white, tertiaries. Jerdon, confounding it 

 with that inhabiting the peninsula of India, remarks that " at the breeding 

 season in the month of April they assume a pure white collar immediately 

 below the ci'imson papillose skin of the neck, which also becomes brighter 

 in colour," &c. ; but no species of crane undergoes a seasonal change of 

 colour of this kind, and an example of the following species (which is the 



