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“with the rifle. The Haussas call the bird Gauraka, a very good onymatopceic name, as the very powerful call sounds 
“much like the word ‘gauraka’. I have eaten the bird and found it quite eatable though not very tender”. 
In Central Africa this Crane is found commonly on the banks of rivers and lakes. In the eastern part of the 
continent it is of ordinary occurrence from south of the 15th parallel to the Equator, as testified by von Heuglin, A. E. 
Brehm, and man}' others. Von Heuglin found it in very great numbers during the winter on the Tana Lake in Abyssinia 
but observed that it left the Dembea plain in April. On the Blue and White Nile he found it as far north as the 15th 
degree of northern latitude, but only during the rise of the river, also further to the west between the Gazelle and Djur 
rivers. Von Heuglin and A. E. Brehm alike observed that in the morning the birds went in search of food to the open 
plains, feeding on all sorts of vegetable matter, seeds as well as green things, and on snails, worms, insects, frogs, etc., 
and that when their hunger was satisfied they resorted to the borders and the sands of the river to drink, rest, and amuse 
themselves by dancing. Sometimes they would return for a second supply of food in the afternoon, but generally the 
morning meal seemed to be sufficient. Towards the night the large flocks separate into smaller troops to go to their 
roosting-places, which were generally in large trees. On this subject Brehm writes: — “On the Blue Nile the Crowned 
“Cranes appeared to spend the night on trees only. Some passing flocks showed me the direction I had to follow, and 
“after having gone for some minutes I began to hear the trumpet-calls of the noisy assembly. They made a great deal of 
“noise at their roosting-places, but the noise was so indistinct that I felt sure they must be a long way off. I had to go 
“for another quarter of an hour before reaching the birds, which I found to my astonishment, thirty or forty in number, 
“seated on the branches of a clump of trees, which stood isolated in the midst of the steppe, not a single bird was on the 
“ground”. Von Heuglin made the same observations respecting this habit so remarkable in the case of birds of this family. 
As to the breeding of this species in a wild state I find no reliable account of it. Von Heuglin was told they 
nest in trees, but I think this very improbable, as the Cape Crowned Crane nests in swamps, and no species of Crane is 
known to build on trees. 
The Crowned Crane is not a migratory bird, the chief difference in its habits during the breeding season and out of 
it being that when the breeding season is over the birds assemble in large flocks and spread a little wider over the country. 
The Zoological Society of Amsterdam received the first living example of Balearica pavonina in 1843 , and the 
Zoological Societ}' of London in i860. Since these dates this bird has rarely failed to be exhibited in both these collections. 
They are usually to be seen in all the more important Zoological Gardens, and if treated properly live in confinement for 
many years. Buffon gives an elaborate account of a tame bird of this species kept in the Paris Menagerie. He found it 
very sociable and playful and he remarks that during the winter of 1778 it went every evening on its own accord to a 
heated room to spend the night, trumpeting loudl)' if it found the door shut. 
In this species the trachea goes straight to the lungs without making convolutions or bending into the keel of 
the sternum. The sternum figured is a specimen preserved in the Museum of the Zoological Society of Amsterdam. 
Sternum of Balearica pavonina. 
