GRALLATORIJE. S33 



dian Crane). Similar to the preceding in form, and almost in size ; 

 asli-coloured; a black neck with two beautiful whitish aigrettes, 

 formed by the prolongation of the slender feathers which cover the 

 ears. Those which have been observed in a state of captivity were 

 remarkable for their fantastic and affected gestures*. 



The Common Cranes have a bill as long as the head or longer. 



Ardea grus, L. ; Grus cinerea, Bechst, Enl. 769; Frisch, 194; 

 Naura. Ed. I, 2, f. 2. (The Common Crane). Four feet and up- 

 wards in height; ash-coloured; black throat; top of the head, red 

 and naked; the rump ornamented with long, recurved and frizzled 

 feathers, partly black. This bird has been celebrated from the ear- 

 liest ages for its regular migrations from north to south in the au- 

 tumn, and vice versa in the spring, which it effects in immense and 

 well-ordered bodies. It feeds on grain, but prefers the worms and 

 insects of marshy grounds. This species is often mentioned by the 

 ancient writers, because the course of its migrations seems to be 

 through Greece and Asia Minor f. 



Between the Cranes and Herons, we must place 



Ard. scolopaeea, Gm. ; Le Courlan, or Courliri, Enl. 848 J, 

 whose bill, thinner and more cleft than that of the Cranes, is in- 

 flated near the last third of its length, and whose toes, aU tolerably- 

 long, are without any intervening membrane whatever. It has the 

 habits, and is the size of a Heron; the plumage is brown, with two 

 white pencils on the neck. 



Ard. helias, L. ; Le Caurale (Eurypyga, Blig.^) ; Oiseau du soleil, 

 &c., Enl. 702. (The Sun-Bird). The commissure of its bill, 

 which is more slender than that of the Cranes, but furnished with 

 similar nasal fossae, extends to beneath the eyes, like that of the 

 Herons, but the bill itself is destitute of the naked skin at its base. 

 It is about the size of a Partridge, and its long slender neck, broad 

 and open tail, and rather short legs, give it a very different appear- 

 ance from that of any other Wader. Its plumage, shaded in bands 

 and lines with brown, fawn-colour, red, grey and black, recalls to 

 our minds the colouring of the most beautiful of the nocturnal Lepi- 

 doptera. It is found on the banks of the rivers in Guiana. 



The second tribe is more carnivorous, and is known by its stronger bill 

 and larger toes : we may place at its head, 



* The anatomists of the Institute had applied to this bird, on account of its ges- 

 tures, the names of Scops, Oliis, and Jsio, by which the ancients designated the 

 Dues of Europe (Bubo). Buffon, who had so well refuted this error as regarded 

 die Dues, falls into it himself, from forgetfulness, when speaking of the ^rd. virgo^ 



f To this genus also belong Ard. canadensis, Edw. 133; the Grue a collier, Enl. 

 865, and the Crane of India, Edw. 45, {/ird. antigone) Vieill, Gal. 256; — the Grue 

 blanche, Enl. 889, {Ard. americana) and the Ard. gigantea, Pall., It, II, No. 30, t. I, 

 which does not appear to us to differ in the least from the white one; — finally, the 

 Ard, carunculata, which is not a Heron, as supposed by Gmelin. 



X Vieillot has made his genus Akamus, Gal. p. 252, from this bird; Spix, pi. 91, 

 calls it Ridlus ardeo'idcs. 



§ Vieillot has changed tliis name into that of Helias. 



