Grus leucauchen. 35 



GRUS LEUCAUCHEN (Temm.). 



THE WHITE NAPED CEANE. 



Geus leucauchen, Temm. pi. col. 449. (1828.) 

 Geus ANTIGONE, Pall. Zoogr. Ross. Asiat., vol. ii., p. 102. (1811.) 

 Geus japonbnsis, Briss. Ornith., vol. v., p. 381, pi. 33. (1760.) 

 Antigone leucauchen, Bonap. Oomp. Rend., vol. xxxviii., p. 661. 



(1854.) - 

 Kaban of the inhabitants of Dauria. 

 Tancho of the Japanese. 



[Mr. Blyth, in his paper published in the Field, described the species 

 under the name of Grus Antigone (Pall.) ; but Mr. P. L. Sclater, in some 

 manuscript notes on the monograph with which he has favoured me, writes 

 as follows : 



Mr. Blyth appears to have overlooked the faoc that the name Antigone was 

 appropriated by Linnssus to the " Greater Indian Orane " of Edwards long before 

 Pallas gave the same name to the " White- naped Crane " of Northern Asia. 



There is, therefore, no justification for Mr. Blyth's proposal to call the latter bird 

 Grus antigone. That name should be retained for the Indian species. 



Schlegel, in the Mus. Hist. Nat. Pays-Bas, Ralli p. 3, gives G. leucauchen 

 Temm. as a synonym of G. Vipio, Pall. Zoogr. Ross. Asiat., vol. ii., p. Ill . 

 This uncertain species is described from the MS. of Gmelin, sen., who 

 termed it Grus minor albus, and is suggested by Pallas to be the young of 

 the white-naped crane which he (Pallas) termed G. Antigone. — W. B. T.] 



In this noble species, which stands nearly 5ft. high when erect, the tertiary 

 feathers of the wing are somewhat lengthened, attenuated, and drooping ; 

 and its general coloration bears a considerable resemblance to the wattled 

 orane of South Africa; but it shows no trace of the wattles, which are 

 altogether peculiar to that species. It has the dull green bill and the dull\ 

 pink legs of the two Indian Saras cranes, and the body plumage is much 1 

 of the same grey colour as in those birds, being distinctly paler on the 

 tertiaries and darker on the under parts ; the irides are also similarly bright 

 orange-yellow j but the dull greyish coronal shield is wanting, and the face 

 only is bare, crimson, and papillose (much as in the wattled crane), with 

 copious black setaceous shafts of feathers towards the bill, there being also a 

 continuous moustachial mark of similar blackish setaceous shafts; ear-coverts 

 grey ; crown and entire hind part of neck, with the chin and throat, pure 

 white; the front of the neck and the lower parts dark ashy, ascending 

 laterally to a point a little below the ear-coverts, while the white of the 

 crown terminates forward in an obtuse point between the eyes. Tail with 

 a dusky terminal band. Sexes differing but slightly in appearance, 



