VIII 
seldom suffer much inconvenience from this temporary inability to fly. In my captive pair of Grtis japonensis, the 
birds shed their primaries every other year only, but whether this is peculiar to the individual pair of birds or is a 
rule with the whole species I am unable to say. 
The immature dress of the Cranes — that is the first feathering that the young birds put on — is quite different 
from that of the adults. It differs usually, not only as regards the coloration, but also in its not having those feathers 
abnormally developed which become so in the mature birds. These ornamental feathers, however, may always be known 
in the young stage by their having some special form. Except in two species {Anthropoides virgo and A. pm-adisea) or 
perhaps three (as I am inclined to think tliat A. carunculata also shares in this peculiarity) all the Cranes are more or less 
brown in the immature dress, and I have observed that the whiter the dress of the adult the browner is that of the 
young. So for instance the young of G. americana and A. leucogeramis are almost wholly cinnamon brown, whilst the 
young of G. collaris and G. canadensis are grey, with brown edgings to the feathers only. This immature dress begins 
gradually to disappear during the first winter by tire wearing away of the brown edges of the feathers, and also by a 
slow moult, and in the course of the second summer (that is when the young birds are more than a year old) gives place 
to the adult plumage. At the same time the naked parts begin to appear, but it takes more than a year for these parts 
to assume their full coloration and extent. This has been observed by Radde in Gi'us ntonachus in a wild state and by 
me in Grus japonensis and G. communis in captivity. 
Cranes have no distinct winter and summer plumages, the only differences observable being that in the breeding- 
season the fleshy ornaments are more highly coloured and all the ornamental plumes are a little more conspicuous. This 
is probably from the wearing away of the more or less diffusely coloured edges which the newly grown feathers usually present. 
The Cranes present scarcely any outward difference in the sexes. The feathering is exactly the same, but the male 
is usually larger than its mate and the naked parts are generally a little more conspicuous. 
Cranes lay two eggs as a rule. The crowned cranes, the sarus crane and the Stanley crane however, have been 
observed to lay occasionally three at a time. Young birds, or bhds that have been disturbed and have laid a second 
clutch, usually lay one egg only. 
