340 GRUID.E. 



THE OYSTER CATCHER. 



Length, 16 to 17 ; wing, 10 ; tail, 4 ; tarsus, 2 ; bill at front, 4. 



Bill orange -yellow, dusky on culmen ; irides crimson- red ; eye- 

 lids orange, with a small space of the lower eyelid plumed and 

 white. 



Whole head and neck, upper back, wings and tail, black ; 

 lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower plumage from the 

 breast, white ; a broad wing-band formed by the greater-coverts 

 also white. 



Young birds are less pure black, with pale edges to the 

 feathers, and after the first moult they are said to have a white 

 collar all round the neck. 



The Oyster Catcher is a cold weather visitant, and occurs 

 all along the coast, but is not found inland. 



FAMILY, Gruidse. 



Bill short, stout, straight, slightly cleft, somewhat like that of 

 the Bustards ; legs scutellated ; wings ample ; of large size, with 

 pale grey or white plumage, and with a long neck. 



GENUS, Grus, Lin. 



Bill moderately long, straight, somewhat thick ; mandibles nearly 

 equal, compressed, with the tip subulate ; nostrils apert, placed 

 near the middle of the bill in a broad and deep groove closed 

 posteriorly by membrane ; wings long, ample ; third quill longest ; 

 tail short ; tibia much denuded ; tarsi lengthened, scutellated in 

 front ; toes short, strong ; nails blunt ; hallux short, raised. 



Grus antigone, Lin. 



863. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 662 ; Butler, Guzerat, 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 14 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of 

 Sind, p. 235 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. Ill, p. 1 ; Swinhoe 

 and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis ; 1885, p. 133. 



THE SARUS. 



Length, 52; expanse, 96 ; wing, 26 ; tail, 9'25 ; tarsus, 12 to 

 13 ; bill at front, 6'25 ; weight, 17 to ISlbs. 



Bill pale sea-green, brownish at tip ; irides orange-red ; legs and 

 feet pale rosy-red. 



Head and neck naked and covered for three or four inches with 

 numerous crimson papillae, clad with a few scant black hairs, 

 which accumulate into a broad ring on the neck and form a sort 

 of mane down the nape of the neck ; ear-coverts white ; below 

 this the neck is whitish-grey, which gradually passes into the 

 pale blue or French-grey, which is the color of the whole plu- 

 mage, the quills and inner webs of the tail-feathers being 

 slaty. 



At the breeding season they assume a pure white collar, imme- 

 diately below the crimson papillose skin of the neck, which also 



