Volume 34, Plate IX / Ornithology (Birds)

Common Crane

Grus cinerea

Formerly more frequent but now only an occasional visitant, with scarcely seven or eight British occurrences since 1820, the Common Crane breeds in dense marshes and has its winter quarters in Egypt and parts of Africa. The crown bears a naked livid space scattered with black hairs, the neck is brocoli-brown ending in a point on the breast, the body ash-grey, and the elongated drooping tertials curve gracefully over the wings.