718 GRUS 



(1809) ; Naum. ix. p. 345, Taf. 231 ; Gould, B. of E. iv. pi. 270 ; 

 id. B. of Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 19 ; Hewitson, ii. p. 308, pi. Ixxxi. ; Tacz. 

 F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 796 ; Ardea grus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 234 (1766) ; 

 (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiii. p. 250 ; G. lilfordi, Sharpe, torn, 

 cit. p. 252. 



La Grue, French ; Grou, Portug. ; Grulla, Span. ; Kranich, 

 German ; Kraan, Dutch ; Trane, Dan. and Norweg. ; Trana, 

 Swed. ; Kuorga, Lapp. ; Kivrki, Finn. ; Jouravl-sieryi, Russ. ; 

 Rhernong, Arab. ; Ktirtinch, Hindu. 



ad. (N. Russia). Crown and lores nearly naked, the skin blackish 

 with a broad band of red across the occiput and more or less covered with 

 black hair ; upper nape greyish black, below which the hind neck is white 

 extending up to the eye, and a narrow white streak from the base of each 

 mandible ; throat and upper neck slaty blackish ; lower neck, upper and 

 under parts ashy grey; primaries black; secondaries elongated, lax, 

 conspicuously tipped or with the outer web black ; tail grey with the 

 terminal portion blackish ; bill greenish brown, paler at the base, dull 

 flesh-coloured at the base below ; legs blackish grey ; iris reddish. 

 Culmen 4*7, wing 24'0, tail 8'1, tarsus 9'6 inch. Sexes alike. 



Hob. Europe, breeding as far north as Lapland and as far 

 south as Spain ; formerly an inhabitant of England, but now 

 of rare and accidental occurrence ; Asia, east to Japan, north 

 to Northern Siberia, and south in winter to India and China. 



Frequents marshes and bogs covered here and there with 

 bushes, and is shy and wary in its general habits. Its note 

 is a loud clear trumpet-like sound. It feeds on various 

 vegetable substances, such as shoots, roots, grain, where ob- 

 tainable, berries, &c., and insects, small reptiles, and even 

 small mammals. Its nest is usually rather a scanty, simple 

 structure, and is placed on the ground, and the eggs, 2 in 

 number, are usually deposited from the middle of May to the 

 middle of June, and vary from light olive-grey to olive-brown 

 more or less streaked and blotched with pale brown shell spots 

 and reddish brown surface markings, and measure about 3'61 

 by 2-46. 



1002. BLACK-NECKED CRANE. 

 GRUS NIGRICOLLIS. 



Grus nigricollis, Prjev. Mongol, i Strana Tangut. ii. p. 135, tab. xix. 

 (1876) ; Tegetm. and Blyth, Nat. Hist. Cranes, p. 70, pi. 1 (1881) ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiii. p. 258; Blaauw, Monogr. Cranes, 

 p. 8, pi. ii. 



