HERON. 45 



12— BROWN CRANE. 



Ardea Canadensis, Ltd. Om. ii. 675. Lin. i. 234. Gm. Lin. i, 620. 

 Grus freti Hudsonis, Bris. v. 385. Id. 8vo. ii. 310. Gerin. iv. t. 416. 

 Grus pratensis, Great Savanna Crane, Bartr. Tr. pp. 144. 199. 291. 218. 

 Grus Canadensis, Frankl. Narr. App. p. 685. 

 LaGruebrune, BuJ. vii. 310. 

 Blue Crane, Phil. Trans. Ixii. p. 409. 



Brown Crane, Gen. Syn. v. p. 43. Id. Sup. ii. 299. Arct. Zool. No. 340. Edic. 

 pi. 133. 



SMALLER than the last; length three feet three inches; weight 

 seven pounds and a half. Bill nearly four inches, and dusky; the 

 tip of the under mandible flesh-colour ; the top of the head covered 

 with a red skin, thinly beset with hairs ; cheeks and throat whitish; 

 hindhead and neck cinereous ; upper part of the back, scapulars, 

 and wing coverts, pale rufous, margined with brown ; the lower and 

 rump cinereous; breast, belly, thighs, and sides, ash-colour, changing 

 to white at the vent ; greater wing coverts, farthest from the body, 

 blackish brown ; those nearest the body grey, forming a band on the 

 wing; the greater quills dark brown, with white shafts; the secon- 

 daries pale rufous ; some of the last long, and narrow, and reach 

 beyond the greater quills; tail deep ash-colour ; legs and bare part 

 of the thighs black ; length of the leg seven inches ; of the leg and 

 thigh nineteen. Male and female much alike.* 



Inhabits America, migrating from north to south like the Hoop- 

 ing Crane : comes into Hudson's Bay in May, and has the same 

 manners as the last ; is fond of corn, and sometimes occasions much 

 damage, by eating the maize : is called at Severn River the Blue 

 Crane; by the natives Samak-uchechauk. The female lays two 



* Dr. Forster mentions one being sent to England, in which the plumage was more 

 dull, and the last row of white coverts of the wing wanting ; and this he suspected to be 

 the female. The author of the American Ornithology thinks this to be the young of the 

 last species. 



