Читать книгу A Manual of Philippine Birds - Richard C. McGregor - Страница 293

Order GRUIFORMES.

CRANES.

Very large; bill moderate, straight, and somewhat compressed, rather blunt; nostrils large, elongated, and pervious, situated half way between tip and base of bill; neck very long, its upper part and the head clothed with few, hair-like feathers; wing rounded; secondaries longer than primaries; tail short and soft; legs very long; toes stout; hind toe short and elevated.

Suborder GRUES.

Family GRUIDÆ.

Characters same as those given for the Order.

Genus ANTIGONE Reichenbach, 1852.

Characters same as those given for the Order.

130. ANTIGONE SHARPI Blanford.

SHARPE’S CRANE.

 Antigone antigone (not Ardea antigone Linnæus) Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1894), 23, 264.

 Antigone sharpii Blanford, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1895), 5, 6.

 Antigone sharpei Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 178; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 94; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 11, pl. 2; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 31.

Tipol, Luzon.

Luzon (McGregor, Worcester). Burma, Cochin China, and Malay Peninsula.

Adult.—Nearly uniform pearl-gray, lighter on neck; head and neck nearly naked to 100 mm. or more below anterior border of ear-coverts; a few gray feathers on chin and ear-coverts; a few scattered black hair-like feathers on upper throat and its sides.

An adult female taken in Nueva Ecija Province, Luzon, in September, yields the following data: Legs rose-pink, brown along the tarsi; nails blackish; most of bill and forehead pale dirty green; tip of bill gray; iris yellow; papillose parts of head and neck red, darker behind the ear-coverts. Weight, 5 kilos. Length, 1,270; extent, 2,200; wing, 565; tail, 220; culmen from base, 178; bill from front margin of nostril, 103; tarsus, 275; middle toe with claw, 117; hind toe with claw, 24. Another specimen from northern Luzon measures; culmen from base, 160; bill from nostril, 92; tarsus, 280; middle toe with claw, 107.

Sharpe’s crane is abundant in the vicinity of Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija Province, Luzon. When I observed them in September, 1908, they were feeding in pairs and frequenting a grassy plain. Two badly decayed eggs were taken from a nest which consisted of a little grass arranged on the ground in circular form. The eggs are white marked with a few lavender spots and dented with numerous, small, elongated pits. The surface is hard and smooth, very slightly glossy, and with a few small lumps about the larger end. When held toward the light the shell appears through the hole to be dark green. These eggs measure 91.5 by 63 and 97.5 by 64.6.

This species has been reported from the Candaba Swamp in central Luzon and Worcester found it abundant in northern Luzon. He says: “I saw Antigone sharpei in large numbers in Cagayan and Isabela during my recent trip, 1906, through those provinces. I am informed that these birds nest on the ground in May, contenting themselves with scraping together and flattening down a little grass on which to deposit their eggs. About August they lose their long wing-feathers and when in this condition can rise but a few feet from the ground. The people of Isabela then pursue them on horseback and take them with lassoes, although according to the statements of the hunters the birds, aided by their wings, run about as fast as deer.”