THE SNOW-WREATH OR SIBERIAN CRANE. 19 
Females.—Length, 48°0 to 53'°0; expanse, 830 to 92°0; wing, 
22°5 to 24'0; tail from vent, 7°75 to 8°25; tarsus, 10°5 to II‘5; 
(one female had the tarsus only 9:0); bill from gape, 6°75 to 
7°65 ; weight, 12°5 ibs to 16 ibs. 
The legs and feet are dull pale reddish pink, (dullest in the 
young), varying to dull red, somewhat brighter on the feet. 
In all but quite old birds the front of the tarsus, the ridges of 
the toes, and the bare portions of the tibia in front are tinged 
(the first strongly, the others faintly) with dark brown, which, 
on the front of the tarsus, sometimes takes the form of a black 
mottling ; claws blackish or dark horny brown. 
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. 
The bill is umber brown ; the membrane of the nasal groove 
red, much the same colour as the naked skin of the forehead, 
lores and cheeks ; all are duller coloured in the less mature birds. 
THE PLATE is coarsely and carelessly executed. No one can 
doubt Mr. Neale’s capacity. Some of the plates of the Sand- 
Grouse show how we/l he caz draw when he choses, but this 
plate and that of the Sarus are quite unworthy of his pencil. 
In the young there is no bare space about the face; the whole 
head and upper half of the neck are of a somewhat rusty buff; 
the space destined later to become bare, however, is, in the young- 
est 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 plum- 
age, when we first see the young birds, may (excepting the 
primaries and their greater coverts and the winglet) be described 
as buff, in some places brighter and more rufous, in others duller 
and sandier, with white everywhere beginning to peep through it. 
By February, though still much varied by buff, the white 
predominates in the body plumage. At this time many of the 
feathers of the back of the neck and upper back are still pure buff, 
and many others are more or less tinged with this colour ; many 
of the longer scapulars and tertials and the hindermost of the 
secondaries are also buff, while the upper tail-coverts and most 
of the lesser and median wing-coverts are tipped with it, and the 
patch of coverts just above the winglet is usually entirely ferrugi- 
nous. There isa very faint tinge of buff on some of the feathers 
of the breast ; and many of the thigh-coverts are wholly rusty. 
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 on the parts above mentioned, it has become marked- 
ly less in extent and feebler in tint. 
