22 
Grus SCHLEGELII, Blytli, Field, XLII. p. 419 (1873) — Tegetm. & Blyth, Moiiogr. Cranes, p. 78 (1881). 
Grus canadensis 13 mexicana, Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. Water-B. N. Am. I. p. 407 (1884). 
Grus CINEREA, Seebohm (iiec Meyer & Wolf) B. Jap. Emp. p. 348 (1890). 
Vernacular names. The Canadian Crane or the Sandhill Crane (English); de Canadeesche Kraanvogel (Dutch); der 
Canadische Kranich (German); la Grue du Canada (French). 
Adult. General colour grey, lightest and ranging into bluish grey on the neck. Feathers of breast, and 
upper wing coverts with lighter grey margins and slightly tinged with brownish. Primaries blackish with light shafts, 
secondaries dark grey, the inner ones grey, .slightly tinged with brownish like the back and slightly falcated, but not de¬ 
composed. — Tail feathers slaty grey. Feathers beneath the eye, cheeks and throat white — the feathers of the cheeks towards 
the ears generally a little lengthened and raised. — Bill greyish horn colour. — Crown of head devoid of feathers, granulated 
and bluish pink: naked part extending backwards till below the eyes and meeting a more or less visible pointed pro¬ 
jection of the feathers of the nape. — The naked skin is sparsely covered with a few black hairs. — Iris brownish yellow. 
Legs blackish. (Living birds in Zool. Garden at Amsterdam). Size of specimen in Leiden, wing 21', tail 7', 
tarsus io|', middle toe & claw 3J', culmen 6'. Smallest specimen in Leiden, wing 19', tail 61', tarsus yj, middle toe & 
claw 3', culmen 4I-. 
Immahire. Similar to the adult but the head feathered and the whole of the plumage, especially of the upperparts, 
mixed with rusty brown. (Skin in the British Museum from Tarpon Springs Florida). 
Chick. Yellowish brown; lighter (shading into white) on the underparts, darker (approaching chestnut brown) on 
the back and across the wings. — (Chick in British Museum from de Soto Country P'lorida). 
Figured of the natural size plate XYII n®. 4 from a specimen laid in the Zoological Garden of Amsterdam. 
Hab. North America, south to Mexico. 
This Crane (for which I retain the name '^canadensis''' of Linneus) has been the subject of much controversy; 
chiefly attributable to the great difference in size which occurs betrveen various individuals. This variation in size, joined 
to its extended distribution, has caused it to be divided into two species, which are usually called Grus canadensis and 
Grus mexicana., Grus mexicana being the larger and Grus canadensis the smaller form. As, however, this difference in 
size is the only reason that has been given for the division, and as I have found, by careful measurements of a number 
of specimens, that there is a regular graduation in this respect, I cannot agree to it. On measuring carefully the tarsi of 
a series of specimens I find the following variations in their respective lengths: 7 inches (Brit. Mus.), 7*- (Leiden), 
71- (Brit. Mus.), 8 (Brit. Mus.), Sf (Leiden), 8j (Brit. Mus.), 8| (Zool. Soc. Amsterdam), 9 (Leiden), 9J (Zool. Soc. Am¬ 
sterdam), loj (Leiden). I therefore do not find sufficient reasons for recognizing two species ‘). Generally, however, the birds 
which are resident and breed in the south of North America are larger than those that breed in Arctic America and 
winter in the south. But large specimens have also been occasionally obtained in the north (as for instance a specimen 
from Hudson’s Bay described by Sabine (appendix to Franklin’s Journey) which was upwards of four feet in length. 
The Canadian Crane was first figured and described in Edwards “Natural History” as the Brown and Ash. coloured 
Crane' from a specimen brought from Hudson’s Bay by Mr. Isham, who says it is found there in summer only. Brisson 
described it both as La Grue du Mexique and as La Grue de la Baye de Hudson from Arctic North America, but 
Linneus in 1766 restored the unity of the species and gave it the name of canadensis. 
Audubon and Wilson seem not to have identified this species at all, but to have considered it simply to be the young 
of G. americana^ to which in fact it bears only a very slight resemblance, G. canadensis being grey, more or less washed 
with brown, according to the age, whilst the young of G. americana is cinnamon brown, more or less mixed with white, 
but always without grey. Since that time the difference in size has constantly given rise to disputes as to its division 
into several species, for which new names (as for instance Grus fraterculus , for very small specimens) have been adopted 
and subsequently rejected. 
Grus canadensis- in all its different variations in size has a very extended distribution, as it occurs all over northern 
North America from Alaska to Hudson’s Bay, and was even met with as far north as Pond’s Bay on the west coast 
of Baffin’s Bay in Lat. 72° during one of the Franklin Relief Expeditions in 1857. It extends all over the United States, 
i) On this subject see Dr. T. M. Brewer in Baird, Brewer & Ridgway’s “Waterbirds of North America” I, p. 407 (1884). Dr. Brewer writes: “In this species there 
“is a vast amount of individual variation in both proportions and colours, especially in the former, scarcely two specimens being approximately alike in all their measurements. 
“ The shape of the bill also varies greatly as does also the appearance of the naked part of the head. Although wc have not yet been able to find specimens which were not 
“positively the one form or the other, we consider it very probable that the two races, distinguished as mexicana and canadensis (by J. A. Allen and Ridgway in the “Bulletin 
“of the Nuttall Ornithological Club” for April 1S80 (p. 123) and for July 1880 (p. 187) where it is staled no intermediate length of tarsus is found between 6.70—8 for 
canadensis and 9.50—lo for G. mexicana') will yet be found to intergrade, since wc have been wholly unable to discover any difference between them except size”. 
