GEUID^: CEAXES.—AEAJIW^: COFBLANS. 667 



opposite it. Adult plumage pure white, Tvith black primarie?, primary e^iTcrt? and alula ; bill 

 duiky ^Ti-eniili : legs blatli ; head carmine, the hair-like feathers hlacddsh. Yuung with the 

 head feathered : general plumage gray / varied with hrowu. Leugth about 50 inches ; extent 

 90.00; wing 24.00; taU 9.0iJ ; tarsus 12.00: middle toe .5.UiJ; bill 6.00. In the adult, tiie 

 windpipe is quite as long as the bird itself — 50 inches or mfire. and over twcj feet of it is, coUed 

 away in the keel of the breast-bone, wliich is entirely hollowed out to receive these extraordi- 

 nary convolutiims (fig. 99) : the voice is singularly raucous and resonant. Temperate X. Am., 

 but apparently of irregular distribution, not well made out ; said to be or to have been common in 

 the Soutli Atlantic and Gulf States, and to have extended up the coast to rhe Mid^lle .States. 

 Xc;iw scarcely known in the Eastern and Middle States. The chief hue C'f migratitm appears to 

 be in the iateri' pr. along the Mississippi Talley, Texas to Minnesota and Dakota, where the bird 

 breeds, and thence spreading in the interior of the Fur Countries. So wild and wary a bird 

 must be much influenced by the settlement of the country. Eggs 2 (or 3 .'), about 3.75 X 

 2.65, light br'iwnish-drab, rather sparsely marked, except at great end, with large irregular 

 spots oi dull chocolate -brown, with paler obscure shell-markings ; shell rough, with numerous 

 warty elevations, and puuctulate. 



669. G. canadensis. (Of Canada.) XoRTHEE^- Beowx C'kane. General character of the 

 species next to be described ; nakedness of head, and color of plumage substantially the same. 

 Smaller: wing lS.00-19.00 : tad 7.00: tarsus 6.75-S.OO ; bill along culmen 3.00-1.00 ! middle 

 toe scarcely 3.00, Alula, edge of wing, primaries, and their shafts, black i Head of adult 

 less naked ? Supposed to be confined in the breeding season to Arctic America, thence 

 migrating through Western U. S. to W. Texas, New Mexico, Ai'izona, and southward. 

 (Supposed to be the ti-ue G. canadensis Linn., 175S, ex Edw, Is G. fraterculus Cass. ? 

 I must retain my doubts about this bird.) 



670. G. praten'sis. (Lat. pratemis. relating to praiam, prairie, field.) SorxHEEX Sa>Ti-hill 

 Ceaxe. Co-MMOX Beowx oe Sand-hill Ceane, Adult with the bare part of the head 

 forking behind to receive a pointed extension of the occipital feathers, not reaching on the 

 sides beL.w the eyes, and sparsely hairy. Bill moderately stout, with nearly straight and 

 scarcely ascending gonys, that part of the under mandible not so deep as the upper at the same 

 place. Adult plumage plumbeous-gray, never whitening: primaries, their covens, and alula, 

 ashy-brown, httle darker than the general plumage, the shafts of the primaries white, Youm,' 

 with head feathered, and plumage varied with rusty brown, Nestlings quite reddish. Smaller 

 than G. americana : larger than Xu. 669; length 4i.00 : extent SO.OO ; wing 22.00: tail 

 9.00; tarsus 9.50-10.00; bUl along culmen 5.00-6.00: middle toe 3.50^.00. This species 

 has been said to lack tracheal convolutions, which is not true of the adult. The trachea is at 

 first shuple and straight, not entering the sternum ; in the adult, about S inches of windpipe 

 is coiled away in the breast-bone, the anterior half .jf the keel of which is excavated to receive 

 the folds (fig. 100). The dispo.?ition is the same as in G. americana. but much less extensive — 

 S inches as against about 27 — a difterence in degree, not of kind. Temperate X. Am., rare or 

 irregular in the east, very abundant in the south and west : apparently breeds in sufhciently 

 wild places throughout its range. Eggs (2) cannot be distinguished from those of G. americana 

 by color or texture of shell, or dimensions ; the specimens examined average less capacious, 

 and relatively more elongate: from 4.10 X 2.40. down to 3,65 X 2.10; average nearer 3.90 X 

 2.60 ; series probably incluiling eggs of Xo. 669. {G. canadensis Auct., an Linn. ?) 



48. Family ARAMID^ : Courlans. 



Consisting of a single genus, with probably r.nly one species, of the warmer portions of 

 Amenca : closely allied to Gruida in essential points of structure, and forming a connecting 

 link with Eallido!. The osteological and pterylographic characters are completely crane-like"! 



