ORNITHOLOGY. 



Genus— ARDEA; or, CRANE. Species— ARDEA 

 RUBICUNDA ; or, RED-HEADED CRANE 

 OF NEW HOLLAND. 



Character. — Bill elongated, straight and pointed ; head 

 bare of feathers on the sides ; body oblong and 

 oval ; neck very long ; legs tall, and the thighs 

 imperfectly covered with feathers. 



THE Crane, Heron, Stork and Curlew, form a large 

 part of the natural division of birds, called the Waders ; or, 

 Grallae : to these the present undescribed bird, from Botany 

 Bay, is closely assimilated in its form and external habits, 

 and may be very properly referred to the Ardea ; or, Crane. 

 Its natural food is supposed to consist of fish, and various 

 aquatic reptiles, for which it searches, with much patient 

 care and attention, on the banks of stagnant pools and rivers 

 in the manner of our own English Heron. For this pur- 

 pose its long and taper legs are admirably calculated, and 

 its head being placed aloft, can view to a considerable dis- 

 tance amongst the reeds and long grass, those objects of 

 which it is in pursuit. 



The Ardea Rubicunda has a very considerable resem- 

 blance to a bird described by Mr. Edwards, in his Account 

 of Foreign Birds, under the name of the Greater Indian. 

 Crane ; but some material differences occur in the feet and 

 crest. In the present bird there is certainly an appearance 

 of a web between each of the toes of the foot, which in the 

 drawing of Mr. Edwards, does not at all appear. He also ex- 

 hibits it with a tuft of black feathers projecting from the 

 back of the head all round the neck, which in this specimen 

 is quite different. 



