PLATE XXIY. 



FAMILY GRUID/E. 



OF this genus only one species is known to Australia, and though there are representatives in various 

 parts of the globe, they are nowhere numerous, and only number fifteen varieties in all. In the 

 New World Cranes are confined to North America ; in the Old World they observe no such confined 

 localities. 



GENUS GRUS (Linnceus). 



THIS Australian species is beautifully reproduced in India by the Grus antigone, and in Europe by the 

 Grus cinerea. 



GRUS AUSTRALASIANUS (Gould). 



NATIVE COMPANION. Genus: Grus. 



THIS bird, commonly known as the Native Companion, is quite the largest member of this class of 

 birds, standing, as it does, some four feet high. It possesses in a high degree many qualities that 

 go to make it a most docile and amusing pet. Its love of play and sportive dances are not in the least 

 subdued by confinement ; it will dance and pirouette, and run races with its captor, with an imitative 

 capacity that makes it most entertaining. At the same time its temper is uncertain, and prudence inclines 

 one to keep it within bounds, lest it should wreak its anger for some slight affront on most innocent 

 heads. It is fond of indulging in mad races, at the same time uttering a hoarse cry that is most disturbing 

 to a peaceful neighbourhood. 



The Native Companion is abundantly distributed all over the continent, except the western colony, 

 and is met with at any time of the year either in pairs, singly, or in companies of from thirty to forty. 

 It is beautiful in appearance, being of a lovely grey colour, with a graceful stately carriage that makes it 

 an artistic adjunct to land or sky scape. 



Mr. Gould tells of a pair of these birds being domesticated under somewhat singular circumstances. 

 " Mr. James Macarthur," he says, "informed me that a pair which he had kept in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of his house at Camden, and which had become perfectly domesticated, so far attracted the 

 notice of a pair of wild birds as to induce them to settle and feed near the house, and, becoming still 

 tamer, to approach the yard, feed from his hand, and even to follow the domestic birds into the kitchen ; 

 until unfortunately a servant, imprudently seizing one of the wild birds, and tearing a handful of feathers 

 from its back, the wildness of its disposition was aroused, and darting forth, followed by its companion, it 

 mounted in the air soaring higher and higher at every circle, at the same time uttering its hoarse call, which 

 was responded to by the tame birds below ; for several days did they return and perform the same evolutions 

 without alighting, until the dormant impulses of the tame birds being aroused, they also winged their way 

 to some far distant part of the country, and never returned to the home where they had been so long 

 fostered." 



