52 Monograph of the Cranes. 



Like other members of the genus Gnis, it is stately and elegant in all its movements, 

 and its presence adds greatly to the interest of the scenery. It is not unfrequeutly 

 captured, and is very easily tamed ; when at Paramatta I saw a remarkably fine 

 example walking about the streets in the midst of the inhabitants perfectly at its ease. 



[In confirmation of this statement Mr. Gould recounted the 

 interesting anecdote quoted at page 10. The same author's description 

 of its mode of flight is given at page 3.] 



It breeds upon the ground usually, depositing its two eggs in a slight depression on 

 the bare plains ; but occasionally the low swampy lands in the vicinity of the court are 

 resorted to for that purpose. The eggs are three inches and a half long, by two inches 

 and a quarter in breadth, and are of a cream colour, blotched all over, particularly at 

 the larger end, with chestnut and purplish brown, the latter colour appearing as if 

 beneath the surface of the shell. Its food consists of insects, lizards, bulbous roots, 

 and various other vegetable substances, in search of which it tears up the earth with 

 great facility with its powerful bill. 



The sexes are alike in colouring, but may be distinguished by the smaller size of 

 the female. 



The general plumage deep silvery grey ; the feathers of the back dark brownish- 

 grey, with silvery-grey edges; lesser wing coverts dark brown; primaries black; 

 crown of the head [pileus] and bill olive-gi-een, the bill becoming lighter towards the 

 tip ; irides fine orange-yellow; raised fleshy papillas surrounding the ears and the back 

 of the head fine coral red, passing into an orange tint above and below the eye, and 

 becoming less brilliant on the sides of the face, which, together with the gular pouch, 

 is covered with fine black hairs [unwebbed shafts of feathers], so closely set on the 

 latter as almost to conceal the red colouring of the skin ; upper part of the pouch and 

 the bare skin beneath the lower mandible olive green. In old males the gular pouch is 

 very pendulous, and forms a conspicuous appendage ; legs and feet purplish black. 

 Total length 48in. ; bill Gjin. ; wing 24in. ; tail 4|in. ; tarsi lOHn. 



The flocks in v?hich it is sometimes seen consist in all probability of 

 unmated yearling birds. I suspect that the various members of the Saras 

 group of cranes never breed until tvfo years old, whereas the cranes of the 

 G. communis section propagate when one year old, the American White 

 Crane ((?. americana] being well known to breed before attaining its white 

 plumage. It has nevertheless been assei'ted that G. communis does not 

 propagate before its second year. 



[An admirable figure of this species is given in Gould's Birds of 

 Australia, Vol. VI., and a drawing of the head from a specimen in the 

 Zoological Gardens is given in Plate 1, fig. 4, of the present work.] 



We now come to the well-marked group of cranes exemplified by Grus 

 communis, the species of which have broad and erectile tertiaries, the webs 

 of which are more or less discomposed according to the species. In all but 

 one of them the legs and feet are of a brownish slate colour. 



