ii2 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



as the sides of the neck, the sides of the head, and the ear- 

 coverts as far as the eye ; feathers below the eye, sides of face 

 and throat, dark slate-colour ; remainder of under surface from 

 the lower throat downwards ashy-grey, including the under 

 wing-coverts ; bill greyish-green, inclining to red near the base ; 

 feet blackish-grey ; iris reddish ; eyelid reddish-brown. Total 

 length, 36 inches; oilmen, 47 ; wing, 22-0; tail, 8'o ; tarsus, 

 9'5- 



Adult Female. Similar to the male in colour, but the orna- 

 mental secondaries not so fully developed. 



Young Birds. Similar to the adults, but having a rust-coloured 

 head, and all the feathers edged with fulvous. 



Nestling. Covered with down of a yellowish-buff colour, of a 

 very dense texture. 



Range in Great Britain. That the Crane formerly bred in the 

 British Islands is undoubted, and, as Mr. Howard Saunders says, 

 "there is evidence that until the year 1590 the species used to 

 breed in fens and swamps of the eastern counties, whilst its 

 visits in winter continued with regularity to a later period, 

 though they gradually diminished." In Ireland fossil remains of 

 the Crane have been found, and this would seem to indicate 

 that when that country was still more 'distressful ' than it is now, 

 the Crane bred there also, in times gone by, in the swamps 

 which its soul loves. Now it is only an accidental visitor, oc- 

 curring more frequently than in other parts of Great Britain 

 in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands. A few specimens have 

 also been obtained in Ireland. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Crane is found in suit- 

 able localities over the greater part of Europe, where it breeds 

 in the marshes, from Spain to Norway and Scandinavia gener- 

 ally, as well as in Central Europe and Russia, wherever it can 

 find the retired morasses which it affects. In 1894 I separated 

 the Siberian and Indian Crane as a distinct species, Grits 

 lilfordi, a paler form of our Common Crane, with the orna- 

 mental secondaries light ashy-grey, instead of dark slate-colour. 

 Mr. Blaauw, who has made these birds a special study, informs 

 me that equally light-coloured individuals occur in Europe, 

 and several of my friends believe that there is really no differ- 



