112 
ALI.EN’s naturalist’s lABRARV. 
AS the sides of the neck, the sides of the head, and the ear- 
coverts as far as the eye ; feathers helow the eye, sides of face 
and throat, dark slate-colour ; remainder of under surface from 
the lower throat downwards ashy-grey, including the under 
wing-coverts ; bill greyish-green, inclining to red near the base ; 
feet blackish-grey ; iris reddish ; eyelid reddish-brown. Total 
length, 36 inches; culmen, 47 ; wing, 22-0; tail, S’o ; tarsus, 
9'S- 
Adnlt Female. — Similar to the male in colour, but the orna- 
mental secondaries not so fully developed. 
Young Birds.— Similar to the adults, but having a rust-coloured 
head, and all the feathers edged with fulvous. 
Nestling. — Covered with down of a yellowish-buff colour, of a 
very dense texture. 
Range in Great Britain. — That the Crane formerly bred in the 
British Islands is undoubted, and, as Mr. Howard Saunders says, 
“ there is evidence that until the year 1590 the species used to 
breed in fens and swamps of the e.Tstern counties, whilst its 
visits in winter continued with regularity to a later period, 
though they gradually diminished.” In Ireland fossil remains of 
the Crane have been found, and this would seem to indicate 
that when that country was still more ‘distressful ’ than it is now, 
the Crane bred there also, in times gone by, in the swamps 
which its soul loves. Now it is only an accidental visitor, oc- 
curring more frequently than in other parts of Great Britain 
in the'Orkneys and Shetland Islands. A few specimens have 
also been obtained in Ireland. 
Range ontside tlie British Islands. -The Crane is found in suit- 
able localities over the greater part of Europe, where it breeds 
in the marshes, from Spain to Norway and Scandinavia gener- 
nlty, as well as in Central Europe and Russia, wherever it can 
fmd the retired morasses which it affects. In 1894 I separ.ttcJ 
the Siberian and Indian Crane as a distinct species. Grits 
lilfordi, a paler form of our Common Crane, with the orna- 
mental secondaries light ashy-grey, instead of dark slate-colour. 
Mr. Blaauw, who has made these birds a special study, informs 
me that equally light-coloured individuals occur in Europe, 
and several of my friends believe that there is really no differ- 
