40 Monograph of the Oranes. 



lOOin., in the female 83in. to 92in. A living adult from India, exhibited 

 some time ago in the Zoological Gardens, was quite a small bird in 

 comparison with the stuffed specimen in the British Museum (all due 

 allowances being made of course). Mr. Hume remarks that "the males are 

 considerably larger than the females, the adults of the former weighing up 

 to 191b., but of the latter only — as far as my experience goes — to about 161b. 

 Of the young birds, however, when they first arrive, the males do not 

 exceed about 101b. in weight, and the females 91b., though generally very 

 fat and well cared for by the parents. When we first see them they cannot, 

 as I estimate, be more than six months old ; . . . for they can scarcely 

 hatch off before May." I cannot do better than quote — or rather do my 

 best to compress — from Mr. Hume in further detail. 



The plamage, as a whole, is of a most brilliant white ; but the primaries and their 

 greater coverts are black, above which the lesser caverts are white, while above these 

 again the winglet also is black. . . . The forehead, lores, and cheeks are naked, of 

 a duU reddish hue, pretty thickly set with short yellowish hairs. In some old birds the 

 hindermost of these hairs, jnst where they meet the white feathers, are longer and 

 thicker than elsewhere, and of a brownish hue, thus producing the appearance of a 

 narrow brown line, dividing the snowy feathers from the bare red space. The ear 

 orifices are very broad and oval, reminding one of those of the owls and other birds of 

 prey. The bill is umber brown, very smooth and polished. . . . The legs and feet 

 are of a dull reddish pink, varying to dull red, somewhat brighter on the feet. . . » 

 The irides are a bright, very pale yellow ; the colour does not vary with age ; but in 

 some birds the iris is almost silvery, and in others there is a pinkish tinge. In the 

 young there is no bare space about the face. The whole head and upper part of the 

 neck are of a somewhat rusty buff. The space destined to become bare, however, is, in 

 the youngest specimens that I have seen, well defined, its clothing feathers being of 

 a browner and dingier hue than those of the rest of the head, and sitting much 

 closer to the skin. The buff is clearest and deepest on the cheeks and the top 

 and back of the head, and very pale on the chin and throat. The rest of the 

 plumage, when first we see the young birds, may (excepting the primaries and 

 the greater coverts and the winglets) be described as buff, in some places brighter 

 and more rufous, in others duller and sandier, with white everywhere beginning to 

 peep through it. In February, though still much varied by buff, the white predomi- 

 nates in the body plumage. . . . By the end of March, when the birds are nine or 

 ten months old, the face has begun to grow bare, and though there is still some buff in 

 the parts above mentioned, it has become markedly less in extent, and duller in tint. 



I ought not to omit to notice that out of more than twenty specimens of the White 

 Crane that I have procured (between October and the middle of March), none had 

 the tertials at all particularly elongated, and in no instance did these, when the wings 

 were closed, exceed the tail-feathers or longest primaries (which usually reach just to 

 the end of the tail) by more than three inches. . . . The feathers of the hind head 

 and nape are somewhat lengthened, so as to ferm a full and broad though short sub- 

 crest, very noticeable when a wounded bird is defending itself against dogs and other 

 assailants. It is a brave bird, and fights to the last, striking out powerfully at times 

 with bill, legs, and wings, but most generally defending itself chiefiy with its bill, with 

 which it inflicts occasionally almost serious wounds. 



In Mr. Gould's figure of this species in his " Birds of Europe," plate 271, 

 and again in Dr. Bree's copy of that figure in the " Birds of Europe not 



