70 
CKANE. 
peculiar sound, and is best described by comparing it to a 
trumpet sounding the word ‘curr’ or ‘coor,’ and this accounts 
for the birds being heard long before they are seen. The 
young birds of the year utter the word ‘sheeb,’ or Sveeb;’ 
when very young they chirp. When a great flock is on the 
wing, the cry of these birds is consequently confused.’ 
The Crane nidificates both on low trees, stumps, and 
bushes, and also on the ground; sometimes too on the top 
of some old building, as well as upon a conglomerate mass 
of rushes or other water plants, among high grass or reeds, 
and in osier beds, and other such situations, in morasses, 
and by the sides of lakes. The nest is a large structure, 
made of sticks, with grass, rushes, flags, reeds, and other soft 
materials. The young remain for some days in the nest, and 
are fed by the parents with food prepared in their own crops. 
The eggs are two—they are richly coloured, of a pale olive 
green ground, blotted and spotted with darker shades of 
green and olive brown. Both birds incubate them. 
The unicoloured plumage of this bird is relieved by the 
fine red. 
Male; weight, nearly ten pounds; length, four feet or 
more, up to five feet; bill, dark greenish yellow at the 
base, paler towards the tip; iris, red; from the eye and 
down the side of the neck is dull white; bristles spread 
over the forehead and the space to the eye, which part is 
dark bluish or blackish grey; the sides of the head are 
greyish white; crown, bare of feathers and red in an oval 
shape; neck on the back and nape, dark bluish grey, with a 
hue of brown; here also is a bare place ash-coloured. Chin, 
throat, and neck in the front, also dark bluish grey; breast, 
fine bluish grey; back, dark bluish grey. 
The wings have the first quill feather a little shorter than 
the fourth, but a little longer than the fifth; the second 
and third being the longest in the wing, and both of the 
same length. Greater and lesser wing coverts, dark bluish 
grey; primaries, black; some of the secondaries are long and 
arched, as also the tertiaries, which are dark bluish grey, 
varied and tipped with bluish black, their elongation forming 
long hair-like plumes, the webs being unconnected, which 
the bird raises or depresses at pleasure. Thej r used formerly 
to be in much request as ornaments for head dress. Tail, 
bluish grey, tipped with bluish black; legs and toes, light 
bluish black; claws, black. 
