256 GRUIFORMES : ARAMIDAE CHAP. 



Northern Africa and India in winter. It is silvery-grey, with 

 white ear-tufts, black sides of the head, neck, chest, primaries, 

 and tips to the inner secondaries. Balearica, pavonina, the 

 " Crowned " Crane of the northern Ethiopian Eegion, is greenish- 

 black above and dark grey below, most of the feathers being 

 lanceolate ; the neck is delicate grey all round, the secondaries 

 are chestnut the inner being somewhat decomposed ; white and 

 yellow shew on the wing-coverts ; a spreading tuft of twisted 

 yellow and white bristles with black tips surmounts the occiput, 

 while the sides of the face are bare white above and pink 

 below, and the throat is covered with black down. There is a 

 very small throat-wattle in this form, but B. chrysopelargus, the 

 " Kaffir " Crane of South Africa, has it much larger and chiefly 

 red, differing moreover in its greyer plumage, and white cheek- 

 patch with only a border of crimson above. In B. gilibericeps of 

 East Africa, the bare skin of the face extends almost to the nape. 

 In Cranes the sexes are alike; but the young are browner, with 

 rusty or buff tips to the feathers, or even with downy instead of 

 more or less naked heads, as in adults. Immature birds lack the 

 elongated plumes. The bill is usually greenish-grey, brown, or 

 black, at times with a little red, but it is yellow in Limnogeranus ; 

 the feet vary from greyish- or bluish-black to dull green or flesh- 

 colour ; the iris is generally crimson, orange, or yellow. 



The Upper Eocene of Hampshire furnishes the fossil 

 Geranopsis as well as Gfrus, the Italian Eocene Palaeogrus, that 

 of Wyoming four species of Aletornis ; Grus occurs, moreover, in 

 the Miocene of France, the Pliocene of Attica and the United 

 States, while G. primigenia of the French and Italian Plistocene, 

 with G. melitensis of the Zebbug cave in Malta, complete the list. 

 Fam. III. Aramidae. In this group, as in the Psophiidae (p. 

 257), the osteology and pterylography are Crane-like, the digestive 

 organs and style of plumage Bail-like; a link being thus formed be- 

 tween the two Families. The long, hard bill is slender and com- 

 pressed, with slightly curved tip ; the tibia is partly bare, the 

 metatarsus scutellated. The wing has eleven primaries and some 

 dozen secondaries. The long tongue is said to end in horny 

 filaments, the trachea is sometimes convoluted in males, the 

 nostrils are pervious. 



Aramus pictus, the Clucking Hen or Limpkin of the Greater 

 Antilles, South Florida, and Central America, is chocolate-brown 



