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THE BLACK-NECKED CRANE 
GRUS NIGRICOLLIS 
PLATE II. 
GruS NIGRICOLLIS, Prjevalsky (Moiiro.iia ii crpana TanryTOBi,) Mongolija i strana Tangutow') St. Petersburg, 1876. 8°. Band. II, pag. 135 id. 
Rowley’s Orn. Misc. II. p. 436 pi. IX (1877) — Tegetmeier & Blyth, Nat. Hist. Cranes, p. '] 0 . pi. I. (1881) Oustalet, Nouv. 
Archiv. du Mus. ser. 3, VI. p. 85 (1894) — Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus. XXIII. p. 258 (1894). 
Vernacular names. The Black-necked Crane (English); de zwarthals Kraanvogel (Dutch); la Grue de Prjevalskj? 
(French); der schwarzhals Kranich (German). 
Adult. General colour a very pale ashy grey, passing into white when the feathers get older, sometime before 
the moult. Feathers of the back with darkish shafts and yellowish margins, underparts almost pure white with less 
conspicuous yellowish than the upperparts. Tail black, upper tail coverts greyish, under tail coverts white. — Iris yellow 
(Prince Henri d’Orleans). Primaries and greater outer part of the secondaries black. Inner secondaries falcated, elongated, 
slightly decomposed and erectable. — Smaller wing coverts inside and outside pale grey. Coverts of the inner secondaries 
black. Spurious wing black, its coverts pale grej'. — Crowm of head naked wdth a rough red skin covered with a few 
small hairs. Rest of head and upper part of neck smoky black; a small white spot behind each eye. 
Bill greenish horn colour. Legs black — total length 48 inches, culmen 4.8, wing 25.3, tail 9.3, tarsus 10.2. 
Hab. Koko-nor (Prjevalsky): Tibet (Prince Henri d’Orleans). 
This Crane was discovered by the great traveller and naturalist Lieut.-Col. Prjevalsky who gave a description and 
figure of it in his “Birds of Mongolia, the Tangut country, and Northern Thibet". Prjevalsky’s memoir was translated 
from the Russian and republished in Rowley’s Ornithological Miscellany in 1877. 
Prjevalsky found this Crane near Lake Koko-noy, and only saw it in that district. It arrived there on the 30th. 
March, probably with the intention of breeding. He describes its voice as very pleasant, and resembling that of Anthropoides 
lencogeranus. He supposed that the Koko-nor forms the northern limit of its distribution. All the specimens obtained on 
that occasion are in the Museum of the Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg except one, which is in the 
British Museum, presented by Mr. H. Seebohm. This specimen has the white of the lower neck and upper back between 
the shoulders very much mixed wath browm and is apparently in moult. I think it probable that it is a young specimen and 
that the immature dress of this species like that of others presents a great deal of brown. 
Besides Prjevalsky’s birds the only other specimen of the Crane in European Collection is in the Museum d’Histoire 
Naturelle of Paris. This individual was killed on the 6th. April 1890, at Tsatang in the highlands of Tibet, at an 
elevation of 1250 m. by Prince Henri d’Orleans. It measured in the flesh i.ii metres, and from tip to tip of the extended 
wings 2 metres. 
o 
If Tibet and the Koko-nor form the breeding range of this species its seems strange that it should not migrate in 
winter to the plains of northern India, but as nobody has ever noticed it there so far as I know, this bird, contrary to 
the habits of most of its near allies, must either be a resident in the country where it occurs, or not being numerous have 
been overlooked in its winter quarters either in northern India or elsewhere. 
i) Mongolia and the Tangut country. 
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