Or us antigone. 



51 



The convolutions of the trachea are developed to a greater extent in 

 this species than in that of the Stanley crane figured at page 22. The sub- 

 joined figure shows the trachea of an adult male, one side of the keel of the 

 sternum having been cut away. The preparation and drawing were made 

 by myself from a bird that died in the Zoological Gardens in 1879. As 

 the individual was perfectly matured, it is probable that the specimen shows 

 as great a degree of convolution as occurs in this species. — W. B. T.] 



Sternum and Tkachea of Grus antigone. 



GRUS AUSTRALASIANUS. Gould. 



(Australian Crane.) 



Gkus AUSTRALASIANUS, Gould, P.Z.S. 1847, p. 220; Birds of 



Australia, vi., pi. xlviii. (1848.) 

 Native Companion of Australian Colonists. 



The Australian crane is very like G. antigone at the first glance, 

 but at once distinguishable by the legs and feet being brownish ashy 

 instead of dull pinkish red, by the nude portion of the head not extending 

 for some distance down the neck, and by the skin of the throat being lax 

 and pendulous, as seen in no other species. It is the G. antigone of the 

 older catalogues of the birds of Australia. The description of this species 

 I will quote from Mr. Gould's " Hand-book of the Birds of Australia " : 



The Grus australianus is abundantly distributed over the greater portion of 

 Australia, from New South Wales on the south to Port Essington on the north ; but, 

 although it is thus widely diffused, it has not yet been observed in the colony of Swan 

 Eiver, and it does not inhabit Tasmania. It was frequently observed by Leichardt 

 during his overland expedition from Moreton Bay ; Capt. Sturt states that it was very 

 abundant on the Maoquarie ; and I found it numerous in the neighbourhood of the 

 Namoi and on the Brezi Plains in December, 1839, as well as on the low flat islands at 

 the mouth of the Hunter. In these localities it might then have been seen at almost 

 every season of the year, sometimes singly or in pairs, and at others in flocks of from 

 thirty to forty in number. 



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