CRANE. GRALLATORES. GRUS. 7 



tent of the excavation, the second about midway. After its 

 return from this second flexure, it bends upwards, and pass- 

 ing over the ridge of the sternum by the left clavicle, there 

 enters the thorax, and is attached to the lungs by its bron- 

 chial tubes *. The female possesses the same formation as 

 the male, but the duplicatures are not so considerable, nor do 

 they extend so far backwards into the cavity of the sternum. 



PLATE 1. Represents the Crane of about one-half the size of 

 nature, from a very fine specimen in the splendid col- 

 lection of Sir WILLIAM JAKDINE, Bart. 

 The bill is black, with the tip of a straw-yellow colour ; the General 

 nostrils pervious and oblong. The forehead and space 

 between the bill and eyes, bluish black, garnished with 

 stiff bristly hairs. The crown is naked, with the skin 

 of a tile-red colour. The occiput, the throat, and fore 

 part of the neck, deep broccoli-brown ; the hinder part, 

 and sides of the neck, greyish- white. The upper and 

 under parts of the body of a deep ash-grey. The pri- 

 mary quills and greater coverts black ; some of the se- 

 condaries and the tertials long and arched ; the latter 

 with decomposed barbs of a blackish-brown colour, and 

 forming elegant plumes, something similar to those of 

 the Ostrich, which usually droop over the tail, but can 

 be erected at pleasure. The legs and feet are black. 

 The plumage of both sexes is similar, though the colours 

 of the male bird are perhaps generally of a finer and 

 brighter tint than those of the female. The young do 

 not acquire their perfect plumage till after the second 

 moulting, previous to which the crown of the head is 

 covered with downy feathers, and they want the deep 

 chocolate-brown upon the occiput and throat. 



* For a further description, see Dr LATHAM'S Essay on the Trachea of 

 Birds, in the fourth volume of the Linnean Transactions. 



