Ones monaeha. 71 



GRUS MONACHA, Temm. 

 THE WHITE-HEADED CRANE. 

 Grus MONACHA, Tem. PI. Col. 555. (1835.) 



Geus monachus, Temm. and Schl. Fauna Jap., p. 119, pi. 74. (1850.) 

 Antigone monachus, Bonp. Conspt. Rend. vol. xxxviii., p. 661. (1854.) 



About a fourth smaller than G. communis, with proportionally shorter 

 bill ; the plumage of an uniform dark slaty colour (conspicuously darker 

 than in the common species), with white head and upper two-thirds of neck ; 

 forehead, crown, and lores red, forming a pileus which is densely beset with 

 black bristle-like plumelets ; irides yellow ; bill greenish, tinged with red 

 towards base; legs dull reddish. In the original figure supplied by 

 Temminck, an adult is represented with the vanes of the tertiary plumes 

 disunited, but the figure in the " Fauna Japonica " is that of a nearly adult 

 female. This smallest of the Asiatic Cranes (with the exception of G. virgd) 

 inhabits the trans-Baikal countries, inclusive of Northern China and Japan, 

 the Korea, and Amurland. According to Swinhoe it is brought to Shanghai 

 market in winter. I have authority for stating that it is a very common 

 species in Japan — too much so to be thought worth sending alive to 

 Europe ! It has, however, been exhibited in the Zoological Garden of 

 Amsterdam — [In November, 1 876, the Zoological Society of London received 

 the first example of this species, which is still alive in the Society's Gardens, 

 and in fine plnmage. The head of this specimen is figured in pi. 2, fig. 8] — 

 and the mounted skin of one may be seen in the ornithological gallery of 

 the British Museum. 



[Lieut. -Col. N. Prjevalsky informs us that G. monaeha 



Is very numerous during the spring migration in S. E. Mongolia, i.e., between Lake 

 Delay-nor and the town of Kalgan ; further west it does not occur. It is very common 

 about Lake Baikal, and must consequently migrate thither along the borders of the 

 Gobi desert. 



We saw the first migrants in S. E. Mongolia on the 15th March; but the principal 

 flocks appeared about the middle of April. A few of these Cranes were seen about 

 Lake Hanka in spring.] 



In the following species there are no dark markings on the head and 

 neck, as in the four immediately preceding ; the throat and cheeks being 

 conspicuously pure white. 



