Swans, geese, and ducks predominated, and three
different species of cranes were distinguished."
The town appears as Tchahan Toloho in D'Anville. It is also, I imagine,
the Arulun Tsaghan Balghasun which S. Setzen says Kublai built about the
same time with Shangtu and another city "on the shady side of the Altai,"
by which here he seems to mean the Khingan range adjoining the Great Wall.
(Timk. II. 374, 378-379; J. R. G. S. vol. xliii.; S. Setz. 115.)
I see Ritter has made the same identification of Chaghan-Nor (II. 141).
NOTE 4. - The following are the best results I can arrive at in the
identification of these five cranes.
1. Radde mentions as a rare crane in South Siberia Grus monachus, called
by the Buraits Kara Togorue, or "Black Crane." Atkinson also speaks of "a
beautiful black variety of crane," probably the same. The Grus monachus
is not, however, jet black, but brownish rather. (Radde, Reisen, Bd. II.
p. 318; Atkinson. Or. and W. Sib. 548.)
2. Grus leucogeranus (?) whose chief habitat is Siberia, but which
sometimes comes as far south as the Punjab. It is the largest of the
genus, snowy white, with red face and beak; the ten largest quills are
black, but this barely shows as a narrow black line when the wings are
closed. The resplendent golden eyes on the wings remain unaccounted for;
no naturalist whom I have consulted has any knowledge of a crane or
crane-like bird with such decorations. When 'tis discovered, let it be the
Grus Poli!
3. Grus cinerea.
4. The colour of the pendants varies in the texts. Pauthier's and the G.
Text have red and black; the Lat. S. G. black only, the Crusca black
and white, Ramusio feathers red and blue (not pendants). The red and
black may have slipt in from the preceding description. I incline to
believe it to be the Demoiselle, Anthropoides Virgo, which is frequently
seen as far north as Lake Baikal. It has a tuft of pure white from the
eye, and a beautiful black pendent ruff or collar; the general plumage
purplish-grey.
5. Certainly the Indian Saras (vulgo Cyrus), or Grus antigone, which
answers in colours and grows to 52 inches high.
NOTE 5. - Cator occurs only in the G. Text and the Crusca, in the latter
with the interpolated explanation "cioe contornici" (i.e. quails),
whilst the S. G. Latin has coturnices only. I suspect this impression
has assisted to corrupt the text, and that it was originally written or
dictated ciacor or cacor, viz. chakor, a term applied in the East to
more than one kind of "Great Partridge." Its most common application in
India is to the Himalayan red-legged partridge, much resembling on a
somewhat larger scale the bird so called in Europe. It is the "Francolin"
of Moorcroft's Travels, and the Caccabis Chukor of Gray.
