34 



BALEARIC CRANE. 



Latham, writing twenty years after, says he is at a 

 loss to imagine how the name originated, as most 

 assuredly the bird was not then found in the Balearic 

 Islands. Swainson, a most ace urate writer, says in his 

 "Classification of Birds," p. 173, that specimens were 

 brought to him in Malta, "from the little island of 

 Lampidosa, where they are by no means scarce." 



Degland admitted it into the European list, and gave 

 Sicily as an additional locality; while Bonaparte, in his 

 "Conspectus of European Birds," introduced it as the 

 representative of the genus Balearica, being found in 

 the islands of the Mediterranean. 



In a private letter, Mr. Tristram informs me that of 

 his own knowledge one specimen had been killed on 

 the island of Pantellaria, between Tunis and Sicily, 

 and belonging to the latter. On the other hand we 

 find Keyserling and Blasias and Schlegel refuse to admit 

 it into the European list; and M. De Selys-Longchamps, 

 in a private letter to me, expresses a doubt of its 

 European title. I think, however, the proof of its 

 occasional wandering from its African home into Euro- 

 pean territory preponderates, and I therefore introduce 

 it into my book. 



It is found generally in the north-east of Africa. 



The Crowned or Balearic Crane is a very beautiful 

 bird. It is readily distinguished from the rest of the 

 family by its short beak and the peacock-like tuft on 

 the top of the head. It has a trumpet-like voice, and 

 is easily domesticated. It is thus described by Lieu- 

 tenant Alex. Von Homeyer, in "Cabanis Journal," for 

 September, 1859, in a paper describing the Birds in 

 the Zoological Society of Frankfort: — 



"It is not so graceful a bird in its habits as the 

 Numidian Crane, but it is more lively and cheerful. 



