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THE AUSTRALIAN CRANE 
GRUS AUSTRALASIANA 
PLATE IX. 
Grus AUSTRALASIANA, Gould, B. Austr. VI. pi. 48 (1848) — Gray, Gen. B. III. App. ]p. 25 (1849) — Reichenb. Naturg. Vog. II. p. 338 
(1850), id. Handb. Fulic. taf. CCCXLI, fig. 2691 (1852) — Bp. Consp. II. p. 98 (1854) — Schleg. Mus. P.-B., Ralli, p. 3 (1865) — 
Gould, Handb. B. Austr. II. p. 290 (1865) — Gray, Haiidl. B. III. p. 25, n”. 10091 (1871) — Ramsay, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 340 — 
Casteln. & Ram.say, Pr. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. I. p. 385 (1877) — Ramsay, op. cit. II. p. 198 (1878) — Forbes, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 644 — 
Tegetm. & Blyth, Monogr. Cranes, p. 51 (t88i) — North, Nests & Eggs Austr. B. p. 314 (1889) — Cox & Hamilton, Pr. Linn. 
Soc. N. S. W. sei". 2. IV. p. 420 (1890). 
Antigone australasiana, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII. p. 265 (1894). 
Vernacular names. The Native Companion (English); de Australische Kraanvogel (Dutch); la Grue d’Australie 
(French); der Australische Kranich (German). 
Adult. General colour bluish grey, feathers of the back and wing-coverts with lighter margins. Primaries black, 
secondaries grey, the inner ones a little elongated, broadened and bent. Tail-feathers grey, blackish towards the tips. 
“Crown of head and bill olive-green, the latter becoming lighter towards the tip; iris fine orange yellow; raised fleshy 
“papillse surrounding the ears and back of the head fine coral-red, passing into an orange tint above and below the eye, 
“and becoming less brilliant on the sides of the face, which, together with the gular pouch, is covered with fine black 
“hairs, so closely set on the latter as almost to conceal the red colouring of the skin; upper part of the pouch and the 
“bare skin beneath the lower mandible olive-green; a patch of dark ashy feathers covering the ear. In old males the 
“gular pouch is very pendulous and forms a conspicuous appendage; legs and feet purplish black”, (y. Gould) wing 24', 
tail 8', tarsus io|^', middle toe & claw 4', culmen 6' (bird in the Leiden Museum). 
Immahtre. I remember having seen an immature living bird of this species in which the head was covered with 
brownish feathers and the gray of the upper parts was more or less mixed with brown. 
Chick. I have not met with a nestling of this species nor a description of it, but I have no doubt that it closely 
resembles die chick in down of G. antigone and G. collaris. 
Egg. Figured of the natural size plate XVII n'>. 6 from a specimen laid in the Zoological Garden of Amsterdam. 
Hab. Australia. 
The early visitors to Australia did not distinguish this Crane from Grus antigone of India, and Gould has the 
merit of having first recognised it as a separate species and of giving it an appropriate name. This name ^Grus austra¬ 
lasiana' could not have been better chosen, for contrary to the usual fact, that, if a continent does possess Cranes, 
several species are found in it, Australia can only boast of this one Crane, no other species of the family having as yet 
been discovered in it either as a resident or as a visitor. 
To Gould again we are indebted for the greater part of what we know respecting this line bird, and also for a 
beautiful plate of it in his ‘Birds of Australia’. Gould tells us that the Australian Crane is abundantly distributed over 
the greater part of that continent from New South Wales in the south to Port Essington in the north. It has not been 
observed in the colony of West Australia nor in Tasmania. It was frequently seen by Leichardt during his overland 
expedition from Moreton Bay; Capt. Sturt states that it is very abundant on the Macquarie River, whilst Gould himself 
found it numerous in the neighbourhood of the Namoi and on the Brezi Plains in December, 1839. Ramsay found it 
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