334 The Crane-like Birds 



whistles, "from a mellow one to a peculiar feeble shrill shivering whistle." 

 While in its winter home it frequents especially the shallow rain-water lakes, 

 where it feeds very largely on aquatic and other forms of vegetation, its snowy 

 white plumage making it ever an object of interest. The nest of this species 

 as observed in Siberia is made among dense reeds of various layers of these 

 plants, and the eggs, two in number, are gray, streaked with dusky lines. 



The Saras Crane of India is typical of another group of three species which 

 have been separated under the generic name of Antigone. They have long 

 and slender bills, but are especially characterized by having the crown of the 

 head bare and covered on the hind neck for a distance of several inches with 

 coarse crimson warts, mixed with which is a scant covering of black hairs. 

 The species above mentioned (A. antigone), which is found in northern and 

 central India, is a large bird nearly fifty inches long, light pearly gray above, 

 with a broad white band on the upper portion of the neck, separating the bare 

 neck from the gray of the back. The Saras Crane is not as gregarious as are 

 many other species, being usually observed in pairs or very small parties near 

 water, nor do they migrate like most of the others. They are tamer and more 

 confiding than is usual among Cranes, and members of a pair are much attached 

 to each other. The form found in Burma, Cochin China, and the Malay Peninsula 

 has been separated as a distinct species (^4. sharpei), differing from the other 

 in the absence of the white collar, while the Australian Crane, the "Native Com- 

 panion" of the colonists (A. australasiand) of eastern Australia, has the neck 

 feathered to the nape. Gould speaks of the latter bird as stately and elegant 

 in all its movements when on the ground, and often soaring at a vast height, 

 uttering the while its hoarse, croaking cry. It nests on the ground, depositing 

 its two eggs in a slight depression on the bare plains, or occasionally in swampy 

 lands near the coast. 



White-naped Crane. Allied to the last, but separated on minor differences 

 in the feathering of the head, is the great White-naped Crane (Pseudogeranus 

 leucaucheri) of eastern Asia. This is the so-called Sacred Crane of the Japanese, 

 being the one so generally represented in its various picturesque attitudes in 

 their numerous works of art. It was formerly protected and existed in great 

 numbers, though it was allowed to be "hawked," and this with great ceremony, 

 only by nobles of the highest rank; but since the power of the" Daimios has 

 waned the restrictions have been removed and it may now become the prey of 

 any one, with the result it has been nearly exterminated in this, its winter home. 



Paradise Crane. We may now consider two rather closely related forms 

 in which the bill is comparatively short, and the convolutions of the windpipe 

 within the keel of the breast-bone much less than in most Cranes. The face 

 and crown are wholly feathered, and there are lengthened pointed feathers 

 pendent from the breast, while the tertiary plumes of the wings are so much 

 elongated as to be often mistaken for the tail when the wings are closed. Of 

 these the Paradise or Stanley Crane (Tetrapteryx paradisea) is a native of South 

 Africa. It is a handsome bird, about fifty-two inches long, leaden blue in color, 

 with the upper parts of the head white and the tips of the long, drooping plumes 



