NOTE 3.—­The city called by Polo CHAGAN-NOR (meaning in Mongol, as he says, “White Lake”) is the Chaghan Balghasun mentioned by Timkowski as an old city of the Mongol era, the ruined rampart of which he passed about 30 miles north of the Great Wall at Kalgan, and some 55 miles from Siuen-hwa, adjoining the Imperial pastures.  It stands near a lake still called Chaghan-Nor, and is called by the Chinese Pe-ching-tzu, or White City, a translation of Chaghan Balghasun.  Dr. Bushell says of one of the lakes (Ichi-Nor), a few miles east of Chaghan-Nor:  “We ... found the water black with waterfowl, which rose in dense flocks, and filled the air with discordant noises. 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.