GRUID^J 277 



Order XV. ALECTORIDES. 



This Order contains the Cranes and their allies, to which, in 

 accordance with Garrod's views, the Bustards have been added. It 

 would perhaps have been more consistent with morphological facts 

 to separate the latter as a distinct Order, intermediate between the 

 Cranes and the Wading birds, but I have preferred to follow the 

 scheme adopted in the Catalogue of Birds of the British Museum in 

 this respect. 



In the members of this Order the skull is schizognathous ; the 

 angle of the mandible is truncated and not produced ; there is no 

 ectepicondylar process to the humerus, and the hind toe, when 

 present, is, in all the South African genera, jointed on a level above 

 the others. 



The South African representatives of this order are all referable 

 to the two principal Families Gruida and Otidce. There are five 

 other small Families as well, containing aberrant forms of Cranes 

 not represented in our fauna. 



Key of the Genera. 



A. With a well developed hind toe. 



a. Without a tuft of straw-like bristles on the nape, 



nostrils linear. 

 a 1 . Fore part of cheeks bare with fleshy wattles ; 



a pair of feathered lappets on the throat Bugeranus, p. 278. 



b 1 . Forepart of cheeks feathered without wattles ; 



ear-coverts and nape with a thick mass of 



decomposed plumes Tetrapteryx, p. 281. 



b. A tuft of straw-like bristles on the nape ; nostrils 



oblique ovals Balearica, p. 283. 



B. Three toes only, hind toe absent Otis, p. 288. 



Family I. 



The Cranes are large birds with long legs and necks ; the bill is 

 also long, generally exceeding the length of the head ; there are 

 twelve tail-feathers and eleven primaries, and the trachea is generally 

 convoluted and packed away to a hollow space formed between the 

 walls of the keel of the sternum. 



The Cranes are externally not unlike the Storks, with which 



