64 Monograph of the Cranes. 



ordinary powers of voice, and the anatomical structure of the trachea or windpipe, which 

 enables the bird to make its trumpet tones audible for more than a mile distance. I 

 have myself heard its sonorous cry from overhead when the bird has been barely dis- 

 tinguishable. The trachea extends along the keel of the sternum for nearly its whole 

 length ; it then turns back at an acute angle as far as to the base of the clavicle, then 

 down and backwards to the keel again, near the angle of the furcula or merrythought, 

 and then forwards, upwards, and backwards into the bronohiaj. The keel of the 

 sternum or breastbone is grooved shallowly, so as to admit a little the trachea, and its 

 convolutions are conducted through the two lamina or layers of the breastbone. The 

 whole forms a perfect bugle or cornet. 



The convolutions of the trachea in the Common Crane are figured by 

 Tarrell in his British Birds, a work which is so well known that I have not 

 thought it necessary to reproduce the illustrations. 



Col. Tickell gives the following as the vernacular names of this species. 

 It is the " Kullung " of northern Hindostan and Upper Bengal, and 

 "Kullum" of the Murhuttas ; " KuUungee " (Teloogoo). It is commonly 

 confounded with the Demoiselle crane {Grus virgo) by Hindustanees, and 

 called "Kurkurra;" " Koonj " (Persian) j " Agoo mara " (Koles). 



With regard to the migration of this species in Asia, Lieut.-Col. Prjevalski, 

 in " The Birds of Mongolia, the Tangut country, and Northern Tibet," states : 



In all the countries we traversed, the crane is only a migrant. Its migration takes 

 place from the end of March until the middle of May. The autumnal migration occurs 

 in September. In the middle of this month we noticed in Ala-shan passing flocks, 

 which, when tired out and not finding a suitable resting-place, settled down on the 

 sand in order to pass the night there and to proceed on their journey nest morning. 



In Kan-su we saw, in autumn as well as in spring, cranes on their passage only once 

 each season, i.e., on the 11th of Sept. 1872, and on the 20th of April, 1873, and in both 

 cases at the same place, south of the river Tetunga. Our tent there was pitched at an 

 absolute height of 10,600ft. ; but these birds were flying at such an enormous altitude 

 that they could hardly be seen. During the whole day one flock seemed to follow the 

 other. At Koko-nor they arrived on the 17th of March. We did not find G. communis 

 in the Ussuri country. 



The range of this species is not confined to the mainland of Asia, but 

 extends to the islands to the east. It is well known in Japan, and Consul 

 Swinhoe, in his notes on the Ornithology of Hainan, states that it is seen 

 in all parts of the island. — Ihis, 1870, p. 365. 



" In the Holy Land," writes Canon Tristram, " the crane is well known, 

 and is, nest to the ostrich, the largest bird in the country. It only visits the 

 cultivated region at the time of its spring migration, when a few pairs 

 remain in the marshy plains, as by the waters of Merom, but the greater 

 number pass onwards to the north. In the southern wilderness, south of 

 Beersheba, it resorts in immense flocks to certain favourite roosting-places 

 during winter. The clouds of these enormous birds, four feet high and 

 many eight feet from wing to wing, quite darkened the air towards evening. 

 Their roosting-place was marked like some resort of seafowl — a gently 

 sloping isolated knoll, where no ambush was possible, and where they could 



