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Chick. Underparts covered with yellowish down, upperparts with dark brown and chestnut markings, darkest just 
above the tail. Crown of bristles indicated by a patch of somewhat lengthened brownish down. (The figure, Plate XVa, 
and description from a' chick a few days old, bred in the Zoological Garden of Amsterdam). 
Egg. Of a uniform pale blue, two or sometimes three in number. 
Hab. West Africa from the sea coast north of the Equator, east to Abyssinia and the tributaries of the Nile. 
This beautiful Crane was first brought alive to Europe by the Portuguese in the 15 th century. Aldrovandus gives 
us a very good figure of it, taken from a drawing, which he tells us, he received from Rome from his grand-son Julianus 
Griffonius. The birds in question were brought to Italy from Portugal, having been imported there from Cape Verde, and 
were kept in Rome in the Gardens of Cardinal Sfortia about the year 1603. It is specially noted that these birds roosted 
on trees or on small elevations of the ground. A beautiful representation of this bird is also to be found in the picture 
of de Hondecoeter about the end of the 17th century in the National Museum at Amsterdam, which has already been 
mentioned. 
From Willem Bosman, who lived several years on the Gold Coast and wrote on its products, we learn that 
Crowned Cranes were in great demand in his da3fs (about 1700) for export to Holland where they were kept tame by 
the wealthy merchants of Amsterdam in their parks and gardens. 
It is unfortunate that the generic name Balearica has been generally adopted for the two Crowned Cranes, as 
there is no proof that these birds have ever occured in the Balearic Islands, and at the present time (as has been ascer¬ 
tained by Mr. Howard Saunders) there certainly is not a single authentic specimen from that locality in any collection. 
To suppose that the Crane, referred to by Pliny as the ‘ Balearic Crane ’, was this species is certainly an error. So far as 
I can make out, Pliny’s ‘Lesser Crane of the Balearic Islands’ was the Demoiselle Crane. His statement that the Balearic 
Crane and the Black Woodpecker both have a crest fortifies me in this supposition. The little white eartufts of the 
Demoiselle are somewhat similar in form to the red crest of the woodpecker, but certainly not at all like the Crown 
of bristles of the Crowned Crane. Nobody could have compared those two objects and found them similar. 
Edwards, Brisson and Latham all described and figured this Crane as the female of the following species. 
The distribution of this Crane extends all across Africa, north of the Equator, from Senegal on the west coast to 
the tributaries of the Nile and Abyssinia on the east. In the Algerian Sahara it is probably only a straggler. It was seen 
there once by Canon Tristram on the dry sands of the Guerah-el-Tharf in the month of April. There is no authentic proof 
of its ever having occurred in Europe, and all serious researches on this point have led to negative results. On its so- 
called occurrence in the Balearic Islands Mr. Howard Saunders writes: — “I am not aware of the existence of a sinMe 
O 
“authentic specimen of Balearica pavonina either on the Mainland of Southern Spain or in the Balearic Islands. The only 
“notice of its ever having occurred in the latter is contained in the list of my friend Don Francisco Barcelo y Combis, 
“who, however, assured me personally that no specimen had been obtained within his recollection. The evidence upon 
“which this species has been christened '■Balearica' is as follows: — Don Buenaventura Lerra, who died in 1784, states 
“in his work on the natural history of the Balearic Islands that he had heard it said that in 1788 a specimen of this bird 
“was obtained at Santa Ponsa, which passed into the hands of Don Cristobal Villela ”. Prof. Giglioli also came to a 
negative conclusion as regards the occurrence of this bird in Italy, and says that it ought to be excluded from the list of 
Italian birds. 
A specimen of this Crane shot near Dabry in Ayrshire in 1870 was of course an escaped bird; the emptiness of 
its stomach, when it was shot, goes far to prove this. 
In West Africa the Crowned Crane probably also visits the Cape Verde Islands, at least I find it mentioned by 
J. G. Keulemans that he had heard from the natives that this bird is a regular migrant to the small uninhabited islands 
of this group. The species is common in Senegambia and on some parts of the Gold Coast. Ussher found it rare on 
the Volta River, but frequent on the Gambia and on the Niger. Mr. Hartert informs me that he did not see this bird 
on the Niger and Benue in 1885 and 1886, but heard from Flegel that he had observed it now and then on the last- 
named river. He saw it frequently however, in the interior of the Haussa Empire from August 1885 to March 1886. 
The birds were mostly in flocks of from five or six up to many hundreds in number. On one occasion he says “having 
“wandered over a dry stony sandy plateau, when looking down in the valley with palm trees, silvery streams and 
“o-reen pasture grounds, I called to my companion that I saw innumerable herds of red and white sheep, such as we had 
“seen before near Kashia, but when coming near enough I found they were all Balearic Cranes. This was the biggest lot 
“ I ever saw, there were many hundreds and they were so shy that I could not shoot any. I found them generally rather shy 
“birds, but much less so when a few only were together. In such cases I have more than once ridden close enough on 
“horse-back, to knock one or two over with my shot gun, whilst out of bigger herds I could generally only procure any 
