2 
Ibis, 1879, pp. 28, 149 — Hume, Str. Feath. VIII. p. 112 (1879) — Danf. Ibis, 1880, p. 92 — Forbes P. Z. S. 1882, p. 352. — Seeb., 
Ibis, 1882, p. 226 — et 1882, p. 31 — id. Hist. Br. B. II. p. 570 (1884) — Murray, Vert. Zool. Sind. p. 237 (1884) — Radde, Orn. Cauc. 
p. 391 (1884) —Lilford, Ibis, 1889, p. 337 — Lydekk. Ibis, 1891, p. 393 — Gatke, Vogelw. Helgol. p. 466 (1891) — Madarasz, Erlaut. Oester. 
Ungarn. Vog. p. no (1891) — Styan, Ibis, 1891, pp. 329, 502 — Reiser, Vogels. Landesmus. Sarajevo, p. 108 (1891) — Frivaldsky, 
Av. Hung. p. 126 (1891) — La Touche, Ibis, 1892, p. 495 — Seeb. Ibis, 1892, p. 21 — Newton & Gadow, Diet. Birds p. 109 (1893). 
Grus vulgaris, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. II. p. 106 (1811) — Nordm. in Demid. Voy. Russ. Mnid. III. p. 266 (1840). 
Grus CANORUS, Forster, Syn. Cat. Brit. B. p. 58 (1817). 
Grus cinerea, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 571 (1831). 
Megalornis grus. Gray, List Gen. B. p. 85 (1841). 
Grus longirostris , Blyth (nec Temm. et Schl.) Birds Burm. p. 157 (1875). 
Grus cinerea jS CINERACEA, (nec Brehm) Severtz. J. f. O. 1875, p. 182. 
Grus communis var. orientalis, (nec Frank!.) Tegetm. & Blyth, Monogr. Cranes, p. 59 (1881). 
Grus grus orientalis, (nec Frankl.) Stejn. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXIX. p. 317 (1885) — id. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. X. p. 134 (1887). 
Grus nostras, Olphe-Gaillard, Contr. Faun. Orn. Eur. Occ. fasc. XV. p. 33 (1891). 
Grus grus, Brusina, Motr. (Orn. Croatia) p. 84 (1890) — id. Orn. Jahrb. II. p. 25 (1891) — Hartert, Kat. Vogel. Mus. Senckenb. 
p. 209 (1891) — id. Ibis, 1892, p. 153 — Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. XXIII. p. 250 (1894). 
Grus lilfordi, Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. XXIII. p. 252 (1894). 
Vernacular names. The Common Crane (English); de Kraanvogel (Dutch); la Grue Cendree (French); der graue 
Kranich (German); Kurotsuru (Japanese). 
Adtili. General colour above ashy grey, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter, so as to be almost pearl grey. The 
grey usually slightly shaded with ashy brown on the back. Underside clearer grey without brownish. — Primaries and 
their coverts, outer secondaries, and greater part of the tailfeathers blackish. Innermost secondaries and their large coverts 
falcated, the secondaries also partially decomposed and erectable. Colour light grey with black tips, or dark grey with 
idem, or sometimes, but more rarely so, of a nearly uniform slaty black. Forehead and crown of head devoid of feathers. 
Skin black on forehead and further crown, and covered with black hairs. Skin of hinder crown red and granulated. Rest 
of head and neck dark slate colour, a white band of about half an inch wide beginning behind each eye runs downward 
along the neck, meeting behind in the lower part of it. 
Bill greenish, pink at the base, iris yellow, leggs greyish honi colour. (Living bird Amsterdam Zoological Garden). 
Wing 23 inches, tail 8 inches, tarsus 10 inches, middle toe & claw 4 inches, culmen 4^ inches [bird in the Lei¬ 
den Museum]. 
Immature. Similar to the adult but all the feathers, especially those of the upperparts, with brown margins. —- 
Head entirely feathered. Parts which afterwards become naked, as well as those which in the adult stage have white 
feathers, most conspicuously cinnamon brown. — Inner secondaries not decoiuposed or erectible but slightly falcated. — Legs 
blackish horn colour. 
Chick. Yellowish buff down, rich chestnut on the back. 
Egg. Figured on plate XVII, N“. i, of the natural size, from a specimen in the Leyden Museum. 
Hab. The greater part of Europe and Asia breeding chiefly in the southern part of the northern half of those 
continents; the European birds wintering in North Africa and along the valley of the Nile, the Asiatic birds in Northern 
India and the Yangtse basin. 
The Common Crane varies a little in the general colouring, and especially so in that of the ornamental inner 
secondaries, which, although usually pearl grey with black tops, are sometimes of a nearly uniform smoky black, whilst 
intermediate forms occur. Birds thus darkly coloured are, however, to be regarded as varieties only. I have not been able 
to find the slightest differences between normally coloured birds from Western Europe (for instance Hanover and Boit- 
zenburg on the Elbe) and those from the extreme east of Asia. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in his Catalogue of Birds in the 
British Museum’ has separated the Common Crane of Europe from that of Asia, giving the Asiatic bird the name of 
Grtes lilfordi. He founds this division on the unfortunate fact that the few adult European Cranes of this species in the 
British Museum happen to belong to those birds which have exceptionally darkish tertiaries, whilst the numerous skins of 
Asiatic Cranes are all normally coloured. 
If the British Museum had a larger series of European Cranes than unfortunately is the case at present, it 
would have been evident that the usual form of this bird, even in the most western part of its distribution, is per¬ 
fectly indistinguishable from that of Asia. For instance I have found birds in the Leiden Museum from Germany and 
from Finland (N°b i and 3 of the „Gatalogue”), birds in the Hamburg Museum (from the neighbourhood of that town). 
