Orus virgo. 27 



"Birds of Europe/' pi. 272. This later figure is copied in Dr. Bree's 

 " Birds of Europe," &c.j vol. iv., p. 27. It is the smallest of aU the cranes, 

 and it is distinguished from every other species by its long and very copious 

 white ear-tufts, which nearly meet at the nape, and are composed of 

 feathers with disunited webs, as also by its conspicuously bright vermillion 

 irides. Like its near congener the Paradise Crane of South Africa, it has 

 long and pendent breast-plumes. General colour pearl-grey, inclusive of 

 the crown and lower portion of the neck behind ; the rest of the head and 

 neck, with the pendent breastplumes, black, as are likewise the terminal half 

 of the wing primaries and the lower portion of the long, narrow, pointed and 

 drooping tertiaries ; a white line is continued from behind the eye to the 

 white auricular tufts. Bill greenish at the base, yellowish in the middle, and 

 inclining to red at the tip ; legs black. Length variable, of a large male about 

 3^ft., of a small female much less ; expanse of wings from 4>^it. to over 5ft.; 

 bill at front 2Jin. to 2^in. ; tarsi 6iin., more or less. Weight about 61b. 

 Young, grey, with some black only in front of the neck and upon the 

 flight-fleathers, the ear-tufts being only slightly indicated. In some instances 

 I have observed remarkable disparity of size in the sexes of this species, but 

 in general that disparity is not particularly noteworthy, 



The Demoiselle Crane is a migratory species, with a very extensive range 

 of distribution according to season. To restrict to it, therefore, its old 

 appellation of " Numidian crane " is not desirable. In the list of Mongolian 

 birds prepared by M. I'Abb^^ Armand David, which is published in the 

 " Nouvelles Archives du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle," tome iii. (1867), we 

 are informed that this "joUe grue" is very abundant at Suen-Hoa-Pou in 

 spring and autumn, and that it breeds in Mongolia, not far from water. In 

 the Zoologist for 1863, p. 8692, we read of a pair straying to Orkney, one of 

 which was shot, and it appears that they were so wild that it is not at all 

 likely that they had escaped from captivity. " The gulls and lapwings con- 

 tinually attacked the two strangers whenever they walked or winged their 

 way over the grass and oat-fields, and they were heard frequently to utter a 

 hoarse scream when thus persecuted by their tormentors." 



[Dresser states, " The only recorded occurrence of the Demoiselle or 

 Numidian crane in Great Britain is that of one which was shot at Deerness, 

 near Kirkwall, on the 14th of May, 1863, and is now in the possession of 

 W. Christy Horsfall, Esq., of Horseforth Low Hall, near Leeds, Yorkshire. 

 —{Birds ofMirope, 1879.)] 



Another was picked up dead on the banks of the River Cole, near 

 Wincanton, in February, 1876 (ZooZo^isi, 1876, p. 4928.) 



Professor Blasius, however, had previously recorded the occurrence of 

 the Demoiselle Crane in Heligoland, as noticed in the Ibis for 1862, p. 71 ; 

 but I do not hear of its having been observed in Scandinavia. Mr. 

 Gould's fourth volume of his " Birds of Europe " bears date of 1837, and 



