BALEARIC GBANE. 33 



GRALLATORES. 



Family GRUIDvE. f Bonaparte. J 

 Genus Grus. (Linnceus.J 



BALEARIC, OR CROWNED CRANE. 



Grus pamnina. 



Ardea pavonina, Linn^us; Syst. Nat., 1766, 



Anthropoides pavonina, Vieillot ; Gal. Ois., ii., pi. 257, 1816. 



Balearica pavonina, Vigors; (ex Brisson) Zool. Journ. 

 Oiseau Royal and Balearique 



couronnee, Of the French. 



Specific Characters. — On the head a brush-like crown of strong bristles. 

 Sides of the face covered with a naked skin in the form of ear-lobes; a 

 pendulous membrane under the chin. Length from end of bill to tip of 

 tail two feet nine inches, to end of toes three feet eight inches. 



It is with mucTi hesitation that I have admitted this bird into the 

 European list, and I only do so as a doubtful species. It is true 

 "we have many accounts of its having been taken at Malta and the 

 Balearic Islands, from whence indeed the generic name of Balearica 

 was given to it by Brisson, who stated that in his day (1760) it was 

 common in those islands. Latham, writing twenty years after, says 

 he is at a loss to imagine how the name originated, as most 

 assuredly the bird was not then found in the Balearic Islands. 

 Swainson, a most accurate writer, says in his "Classification of 

 Birds," p. 17o, that specimens were brought to him in Malta, 

 "from the little island of Lampidosa, where they are by no means 

 scarce." 



Degland admitted it into the European list, and gave Sicily as an 

 additional locality; while Bonaparte, in his "Conspectus of European 

 Birds," introduced it as the representative of the genus Balearica, 

 being found in the islands of the Mediterranean. 



VOL. V. F 



