1855.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 361 



peculiar and characteristic. In GrR. antigone, the red papillose skin of 

 the neck extends down about 4 in. below the grey ear-coverts, which form 

 a smaller patch than in the Australian bird. Both species have the crown 

 slaty, and bright orange-yellow irides ; but as seen from a little distance, 

 the Australian shews conspicuously a crimson occiput with contrasting 

 black throat-wattle, the cheeks being of a paler red ; while the Indian exhi- 

 bits a much greater extent of crimson on the neck and throat, with some 

 black bristle-like plumes on the throat, occiput, and upper part of the 

 neck, more or less developed in different individuals. The legs of the 

 Australian species are shorter than in Gr. antigone ; being of the same 

 proportions and of the same dusky slate-colour as in Gr. Vulgaris : 

 whereas those of Gr. antigone are crimson-roseate. The tarsi, in Gr. 

 antigone, measure 12 to 12£ in. ; in our specimen of Gr. australasi- 

 ana, but 10| in. The latter has the plumage uniformly ash-grey, with 

 the lengthened tertiaries neither curled as in Gr. vulgaris, nor albescent 

 as in Gr. antigone. In the vivarium of Babu Rajendra Mallika, there 

 are, at the present time, several dozens of Gr. antigone, and also of Gr. 

 vulgaris and of Gr. virgo ; and we remark that about the month of 

 April all of the first species (or Saras) assume a broad pure white collar 

 immediately below the crimson papillose skin of the neck : they then 

 illustrate the Gr. torquata, (Latham), Vieillot, which accordingly is merely 

 Gr. antigone in its nuptial plumage. We have known instances of the 

 Saras breeding in captivity, when a pair is allowed the range of a large 

 walled garden (protected from Jackals), containing shallow inundated 

 enclosures for the growth of rice : in these the nest is commenced under 

 water, and raised for some inches above the surface ; and the eggs are 

 two in number, about 3f in. long by 2| in. broad, of a bluish-white with 

 a few distantly placed rufous specks and blotches. The young follow 

 their parents from the first (unlike those of the ABDEADiE), and have 

 the head and neck clad with feathers of a dull light ferruginous colour, 

 which begin to fall when the bird is more than half-grown. Besides the 

 three Indian species of Crane here mentioned (of which the Saras alone 

 is known to breed in the country), a fourth occurs as a great rarity in the 

 N. W., the Gr. leucogeranos, Pallas (white, with black primaries, bald 

 face, and pinkish-red legs). This fine species was procured by Burnes 

 in Afghanistan ; and we have been assured that it has been occasionally 

 observed in Rajastan. Schlegel even gives Bengal as a habitat (which wo 

 cannot but think requires confirmation, even though skins may have been 

 received via Bengal) ! A fifth Asiatic Crane exists in Gr. montagnesia, 

 (C. L. Bonap.), from Mantchuria ; a sixth in Gr. vipio, Pallas, which 

 chiefly inhabits the extreme east, as the Corea, Japan, &c. ; and there is 



