Grus canadensis. 73 



of plumage^ but the male was very much larger than the female, while the 

 nude and papillose skin upon its head was considerably less extended back- 

 wards than in the female, but whether posteriorly furcate or otherwise I 

 neglected to note. My impression is that it was not so, or I should have 

 surely noted it. It was a fully mature bird, and completely accorded with 

 the figure cited, which, however, does not at all agree with the description 

 given in the same work, though both are alike styled by the triple appella- 

 tion of Grus cinerea longirostris. Following the description only, and 

 necessarily without consulting the plate, the latter is assigned by Mr. 

 Dresser (in his " History of the Birds of Europe ") to G. communis, to 

 which species the description, but not the figure, refers undoubtedly ; 

 and on calling that naturalist's attention to the subject, and showing him 

 the figure, he at once pronounced the latter to be that of a species akin to 

 the American Sandhill Crane, from which it differs in its larger size and in 

 the reduced extent of the nude coronal patch, as in the living specimen just 

 described. In the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1868 (p. 567) 

 Mr. Sclater called attention to the remarkable difference of size noticeable 

 in the two specimens which were then in the Regent's Park collection, but 

 he did not refer to the equally conspicuous difference in the extent of the 

 nude coronal patch. This was noticed, however, by the superintendent, Mr. 

 Bartlett, and when not long ago I showed to him the figure in the " Fauna 

 Japonica," he at once recognised its similarity to, or rather its absolute 

 identity with, the individual bird referred to. 



That the figure in question represents a North American specimen, and 

 not a Japanese one, I think there can be exceedingly little doubt, by what- 

 ever strange inadvertence it came to be introduced where we find it ; and if 

 I had not a vivid recollection of the living bird formerly in the Regent's 

 Park, I should not have hesitated to refer it to G. communis. My present 

 and very decided opinion is that it represents a species confounded up to the 

 present time with G. comrmmis, to which, therefore, the attention of 

 observers should be directed : as regards mere size, however. Prof. Baird 

 remarks that " there is much variation in different specimens with age : the 

 bill, feet, and whole body apparently growing considerably, long after the 

 perfect feathers have been attained." So far as I have observed, the male 

 is, as usual in the genus, larger than the female ; but in the " Exploration 

 and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah," by Mr. Howard 

 Stansbury (1852), the length of a female is given as 45in. by 75^in. in 

 expanse of wings, whereas that of a male is given as only 41in. by 69in. 



Of presumably the true Sandhill Crane Dr. H. Bryant states that in East 

 Florida : 



On the 11th of March a young bird was brought to me which already stood nearly 

 two feet in height ; it was covered with down of a ferruginous colour above, and 

 cinereous below ; the tarsi were of a reddish-brown colour. The naked skin on the 



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