72 DTTBLIN NATtJEAL HISTOBY SOCIETY. 



grass (Catabrosa aquatica), portions of some other aquatic root, gravel, and 

 pieces of the shells of snails. It seemed to have fed largely on the roots of aqua- 

 tic plants. The bird was in fine condition, and weighed 12 lbs. Its extreme 

 length was five and a half feet, from the tail to the bill four feet seven inches, and 

 the spread of its wings, from tip to tip, seven feet. Mr. Williams has obtained 

 the following information relative to others met with in the county of Cork. 

 Captain Douglas, R. N., when cock-shooting near Kinsale, saw three birds in a 

 ploughed field, one of which he shot. He had started them twice before from 

 stubble fields. It was a hen bird, and being only winged, defended itself most 

 obstinately before it was captured. Captain Douglas mentioned that the bird 

 was gorged with roots like the roots of grass. 



Mr. KnoUes, of Oatlands House, subsequently met five others — one he shot, 

 and Mr. Dunn, of Kinsale, heard of another being found dead in a bog. These 

 birds were also feeding in upland or stubble fields. 



The bird shot by Mr. Knolles,and which has been preserved by Mr. Gordon, 

 measured from tip to tip four feet three inches ; its weight 10|lbs. 



The bird presented to the Society appears to have attained mature plumage ; 

 but it is unnecessary here to remark on any characteristics of the kind, as it is 

 beautifully figured in the works of Gould and Selby, and fully described in most 

 works on Ornithology. 



To those who have not had the opportunity of examining so rare a visitant, 

 its superior size to the heron must be striking, and the manner that the seconda- 

 ries and tertials are elongated, forming gracefully curved plumes over the ends 

 of the wings and the sides convey, as has been represented, some affinity to the 

 ostrich. The smaller size and less pointed or obtuse point of the bill, as com- 

 pared with that of the heron, and the muscular stomach, adapt it more to the ha- 

 bits of land birds, deriving its food from roots, vegetables, and corn, as well as 

 from mollusca and aquatic insects. 



The native climate and breeding places of the crane are stated to be the 

 higher northern latitudes both of Europe and Asia — that it makes its winter mi- 

 grations to southern climes until genial weather in its native regions again per- 

 mits its return. They migrate in flocks, and, notwithstanding their size, under- 

 take more wonderful and hazardous journeys than any other bird. Their re- 

 markable appearance in this country during the severe weather of 1739, and their 

 present visit, would seem to foretell a winter of more than usual severity. In 

 northern Europe the winter is reported to have set in with great severity. In 

 Upper Silesia snow covers the country, in many places forty and fifty feet deep, 

 and the whole distance from Vienna to Berlin the snow extends and spreads over 

 a wide tract, north and south of those cities. 



Mr. Whitla said — The remarks already made by the several gentlemen who 

 have spoken, have left room for very few observations on my part. I may, how- 

 ever, state that this very rare visitant is enumerated in the zoology of Mr. Ray, 

 who says that in his time cranes were found during winter in large flocks in Lan- 

 cashire and Cambridgeshire. 



I have repeatedly been told, and that by persons whose veracity you would 

 not question, but whose judgment and intelligence you might, that the crane has 

 been frequently a visitor to our island ; but the heron being almost constantly 

 confounded with the crane by non-naturalists, I was rather sceptical in crediting 

 it — perhaps too much so. I am enabled, however, to refer to one whose autho- 

 rity few will be inclined to question, to prove that the crane was an occasional 

 visitor to our shores — 1 allude to the author of the "Natural History of Ja- 

 maica," Dr. Patrick Brown, a gentleman whose works prove him to have been 

 intimately acquainted with every branch of a subject to which he had devoted 

 many years of his life abroad ; and on his return, though late in life, and with 

 shattered health and impaired fortune, he resumed his favourite pursuit, and em- 

 ployed him.self in investigating the natural history of his native country. The re- 

 sult was the completion of a Flora, a very interesting work, and " A Catalogue 



