274 AVES ORDER GRUIFORMES. 



whether the native British bustards occurred in former times as migrants or 

 were resident in this country. The former supposition is probably correct, 

 as the species is known to be migratory to most of the European countries in 

 which it still breeds. In the nesting season it retires to the fields of tall 

 grass and corn, where it is able to conceal its great bulk, and it is said that 

 at this season of the year the birds moult their quills, and are unable to fly. 



The male of the great bustard is much larger than the female, and has, 

 besides his brighter coloration, more conspicuous whiskers. His method of 

 showing off, when courting the female, is one of the most curious sights in 

 the whole of nature. He commences by shivering his wings and lowering 

 his quills, and his next action is to turn up his tail and lay it flat on his back, 

 so that the snow-white under tail-coverts form a sort of frill. Across the 

 flattened tail he disposes his primary quills so that the ends of these cross 

 each other, and keep the tail out of sight, the whole proceeding being hidden 

 by ruffling up the scapular feathers till nothing can be seen of the tail or the 

 primary quills. The act of crossing the latter across the back naturally 

 brings the fore-part of the wing into an extended position, and the inner 

 secondaries, which are pure white, are thrown up as a frill on each side of 

 the back, while all the wing-coverts are more or less inverted, as if the bird 

 were trying to turn himself inside out, the long parapteral wing-coverts being 

 thrown back, so as to secure an uninterrupted view of the white frill caused 

 by the elevation of the inner secondaries and the halo of the under tail-coverts. 

 The bird then lays its head deep down between the shoulders, so that the 

 whiskers stand up on each side, and then proceeds to inflate his throat and 

 chest, which become distended to an enormous degree. He then shows 

 himself to his lady-love, and paces slowly in front of her, now and then 

 springing round to exhibit the white under tail-coverts. This curious per- 

 formance was witnessed in the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Pickhardt, who 

 has mounted the group of bustards for the gallery in the Natural History 

 Museum. 



The eggs of the bustards are two or three in number, of an olive-brown 

 colour, spotted or blotched with brown, the underlying spots being grey, the 

 eggs being never very strongly marked. No nest is made. 



In this assemblage we have birds of very varied form and the Cranes 

 were considered in former times to be allied to the herons. The differ- 

 ence in the structure of the palate, however, shows that 

 The Cranes. they are not really related, as the herons have a bridged 

 Order or desmogriathous palate, whereas in the cranes and their 



Gruiformes. allies the maxillo-palatine bones do not coalesce with each 

 other or with the vomer. The young, likewise, are hatched 

 covered with down, and can take care of themselves soon after leaving the 

 egg, while the nestlings of herons have to remain for a long time helpless, 

 and are fed by the parent birds in the nest. There are also many other 

 anatomical and osteological characters which separate the cranes. 



They are stately birds, with long legs and generally some bright orna- 

 mental colour on the head, while the inner secondaries are developed into 

 handsome drooping plumes. With the exception of South 

 The True Cranes. America, cranes are found in every part of the world, and 



Sub-order Africa possesses three out of the nine known genera. The 



Grues. sarus cranes (Antigone) are found in India and Burma, and 



one species, the well-known "native companion" (A. 



austmlasiana), in Australia. This is a peculiar and interesting distribution, 



