ARDEID.*:. 303 



the top of the head is indicated by a few dark spots only ; 

 below the chin depend two flaps of skin, covered with short 

 dense feathers ; legs black ; bill red ; irides red. Length, 

 4' 7" ; wing to the end of drooping feather, 3' ; tail, 13". 



This great Crane is only found in a few favoured localities, scattered 

 over the country. A single pair take up their haunts and maintain it 

 for years, breeding constantly in the same nest, which is repaired as 

 occasion requires. I had the pleasure of watching a pair, through my 

 binoculars, engaged in this proceeding : both birds contributed to the 

 work, stopping now and then to do a little courting, like an ordinary 

 sparrow or canary, but surely undignified in so grave a bird ! It 

 suggested to me the possibility of an Archbishop or a Lord-Chan- 

 cellor making love ! Still " something came of it," for my friend Hugo 

 took two glorious eggs out of that selfsame nest, and presented them 

 to me, and they now form part of the treasures of the South African 

 Museum. They are of a dull olive-brown, irregularly blotched 

 throughout with reddish-brown, closely resembling those of Anthro- 

 poids Virgo and S. Stanley anus. Axis, 4" 3'" ; diam., 2" 9'". 



Genus ANTHROPOIDES, Vieillot. 



Bill the length of the head, straight, the sides compressed, 

 the apical part of the culmen slightly curved to the tips, 

 which are equal in length ; the gonys long and slightly 

 advancing upwards ; the nostrils placed in a basal groove, 

 which reaches beyond the middle of the bill, with the open- 

 ing io a longitudinal slit ; wings long, with the third and 

 fourth quills th3 longest, and the tertials lengthened and 

 pendant ; tail rather short ; tarsi long and slender, and 

 covered with transverse scales ; toes moderate, slender, and 

 covered above with transverse scales, the lateral toes equal, 

 the outer united at the base to the middle toe, and the hind 

 toe very short and elevated. 



574. Anthropoides Stanleyanus, Vigors; 



Zool. Journ. II, 234, PI. 8 ; Cuv., Vol. 3, p. 330 ; 

 Grus Paradisea, Licht. ; Tetmpteryx Capensis, 

 Thunb. ; Blue Crane of Colonists. 



ENTIRELY of a leaden-blue, with the exception of the upper 

 portion of the head, which is white, and the ends of the long 

 drooping plumes of the wings, which are black. Length, 

 4' 4" ; wing, 3' 10" (including the drooping plumes) ; tail, 

 1' 2". 



The " Stanley " or " Blue J> Crane is not abundant in any locality, 

 but seems very generally distributed. I fancy that certain pairs 

 frequent the same district for the whole term of their lives, and may 

 always be found within a certain radius. I saw it thus continually at 

 JJel's Poort, and at the Knysna. It is wary, and difficult to approach 



