CRANES. 125 



the approach of the V-shaped flight above. The four birds in the foreground, having 

 the peculiar crest or crown on top of the head, much like that of a peacock, are the 

 northwest African crowned-crane (Balearica pavoniiid) ; the southern species, H. 

 chrysopelargus, having a large, pendulous, naked throat-lappet. In this genus the 

 windpipe is simple and does not enter the keel. The light-colored bird to the left, in 

 front of the others, is a ' demoiselle ' or ' Numidian ' crane ( Tetrapterix, or Antro- 

 poides virgo), of which a better representation will be found on the full-page cut of 

 the BalcKniceps rex, in the upper right-hand corner (facing p. 172). Like the other 

 cranes, the demoiselle, which occurs from Mongolia in the east to northern Africa in 

 the west, is fond of dancing, as described in the following graphic account of the 

 Russian naturalist, Prof, von N'ordmann : " They arrive in the south of Russia about 

 the beginning of March, in flocks of between two and three hundred individuals. 



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Arrived at the end of their journey, the flocks keep together for some time, and even 

 when they have dispersed in couples, they re-assemble every morning and evening, 

 preferring in calm weather to exercise themselves together, and amuse themselves by 

 dancing. For this purpose they choose a convenient place, generally the flat shore of 

 a stream. There they place themselves in a line, or in many rows, and begin their 

 games and extraordinary dances, which are not a little surprising to the spectator, and 

 of which the account would be considered fabulous were it not attested by men worthy 

 of belief. They dance and jump around each other, bowing in a burlesque manner, 

 advancing their necks, raising the feathers of the neck-tufts, and half unfolding the 

 wings. In the meantime another set are disputing, in a race, the prize for swiftness. 

 Arrived at the winning-post they turn back, and Avalk slowly and with gravity ; all the 

 rest of the company saluting them with reiterated cries, inclinations of the head, and 

 other demonstrations, which are recipi'ocated. After having done this for some time, 

 they all rise in the air, where, slowly sailing, they describe circles, like the swan and 

 other cranes. After some weeks these assemblies cease, and from that time they are 

 seen constantly walking in loving pairs together." 



It would not do to leave the cranes without having given the readers a taste of J. 



^J C7 



Wolley's account of the breeding of the crane in Lapland, which Professor Newton 

 has styled " one of the most pleasing contributions to natural history ever written," 

 and I only regret that want of space prohibits the reproduction of it unabridged. 

 Wolley, in 1853, went to Swedish Lapland in order to find out, among other things, 

 whether the young crane, on first leaving the egg, is helpless like a young heron, or 

 able to run about like the young of most waders and Gallinaceous birds, and to observe 

 the breeding habits for himself. He came after the birds were hatched, but he satis- 

 fied himself that the young cranes, after leaving the eggs, could run about. He had to 

 wait a year to get the eggs. Here are his words: "The following year, 1854, on the 

 20th of May, I went with only Lud wig my servant-lad to look for the crane's 

 nest in <Iso noma ' [the great swamp]. We saw no birds, and the spot where the 

 nest had been the preceding year was not easy to find in so extensive a marsh. So 

 we quartered our ground, walking carefully up one strip of harder bog and down the 

 next. After some hours of heavy walking, I saw the eggs-- joyful sight --on an ad- 

 jacent slip, in a perfectly open place. The two eggs lay with their long diameters 

 parallel to one another, and there was just room for a third egg to be placed between 

 them. The nest, about two feet across, was nearly flat, and chiefly of light-colored 

 grass or hay loosely matted together, scarcely more than two inches in depth, and 

 raised only two or three inches from the general level of the swamp. There were 



