JuLT 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



31 



toliave a primacy over the Pest, and that he was Peter 

 who bad the pre-eminence." 



The Irish languajre is rich in names of plants, 

 yet Threlkt'ld and K'Eogh alone make use of the 

 native terms. The two latest works are deficient 

 in this respect : The Irish Flora, comprising the 

 Phmnogamous Plants and Fernft, Dublin, 1833, 

 12ino., and the valuable Flora Hibernica, Dublin, 

 1836, Svo. ; the former, I believe, by Sir Kobert 

 'Kane's lady (born Miss Baillie), the hitter by 

 - Dr. Mackay. For a full technical description of 

 ■ the Miiidcn-hair, see Francis's Analysis of the 

 'Sritish Ferns and their Allies, 3rd edit., 1847, to 

 ■which 1 am indebted for its British and foreign 

 habitats. Eirionnach. 



CRANES IN STORMS. — ^CREDIBILITY OF THE ANCIENT 

 NATURALISTS. 



(Vol. v., p. 582.) 



Tlte Query of your correspondent Rt. respect- 

 ing the " Custom of Cranes in Storms " might have 

 been better worded " The Custom attributed by 

 the Ancients to Cranes in Storms." It cannot be 

 necessary to inform your readers, that almost every 

 bird, beast, and tish mentioned by ancient natural- 

 ists has some marvellous story appended to its 

 history ; and in this respect the crane is by no 

 means deficient. To pass over its fiimous battles 

 with the Pygniffii, so beautifully described by the 

 Prince of Poets, who tells us 

 " That when inclement winters v€x the plain 

 Witli piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 

 To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, 

 "With noise, and order, through the mid-way sky: 

 To Pygmy nations wounds and death they bring, 

 And all the war descends upon the wing." 



JUud, lib. iii. 6. 

 Philemon Holland, in his translation of Pliny's 

 Natural History, renders his author's account of the 

 migrations of these birds in these words : 



" Thtr-y put not themselves in their journey, nor set 

 forward without a cGunsell called before, and a generall 

 consent. They flie aloft, because tliey would have a 

 better prospect to see before them : and for this pur))ose a 

 captain theyehuseto guide them, whom the rest follow. 

 In the rereward behind these he certaine of them set and 

 disposed to give signall by their manner of crie, for to 

 .range orderly in ranks, and keep close together in array : 

 and this they doe by turnes, each one in his course. They 

 maintaine a set watch all night long, and have their 

 sentinels. These stand on one foot, and hold a little 

 stone within the other, which falling from it, if they 

 should chance to sleep might awaken them, and reprove 

 them for their negligence. Whiles these watch all the 

 rest sleep, couching their heads under their wings : and 

 one while they rest on one foot, and otherwhiles they 

 shift to the other. The captaine beareth up his head 

 aloft, and giveth signall to the rest what is to he done. 

 These cranes, if they be made tame and gentle, are very 

 playful and wanton birds : and they will one by oup 



dance (as it were), and run the round, with their long 

 sliankts stalking full untownrdly. This is surely 

 known, tliat when they mind to take a flight over the 

 sea Poiitus, they will fly directly at the first to the 

 narrow streights of the sayd sea, lyingbetwecn the two 

 C;ipes Criu-Mefopon and Carambis, and then |)resently 

 ihey ballaise themselves with stones in their feet, and 

 sand in their throats, that they flie more steadie and 

 endure the wind. When they be halfe way over, down 

 they fling these stones : but when they are come to the 

 continent, the sand also they disgorge out of their craw." 



The historian Ammianus Marcelllnus tells us, 

 that in imitation of the ingenuity of this bird in 

 ensuring its vigilance, Alexander the Great was 

 accustomed to rest with a silver ball in his hand, 

 suspended over a brass basin, which if he began to 

 sleep might fall and awake him. 



The circumstance related by !N"onnu6, in your 

 correspondent's communication, is without doubt 

 taken from Pliny's account of the passage of tlrese 

 birds over the Pontus ; but not having Elian's 

 History of Animals at hand, nor the works of any 

 other ancient naturalist, except Pliny, I am unable 

 to trace the reference of Bishops Andrews and 

 Jeremy Taylor. 



It is only due to Aristotle, and the other ancient 

 naturalists, to observe that most of their legends 

 respecting animals arose from the necessarily im- 

 perfect knowledge they possessed of the habits and 

 faculties of the animal creation, and from their in- 

 ability to distinguish one species from another: 

 this led them frequently to attribute to one ihe 

 properties which in reality belonged to another, as 

 well as to mistake the motive of the particular 

 action they were desirous of describing. A re- 

 markable instance of this kind occurs In the 

 mention of the hive-bee by Pliny (lib. xl. cap. x.) : 



"If haply there do arise a tempest or a storm whiles 

 they be ahroad, they catch up some little stony greet to 

 ballance and poise themselves ajrainst the wind. Some 

 say that they take it and lay it upon their shoulders. 

 And withall, diey fl:e low by the ground, under the 

 wind, when it is against them, and keep along the 

 bushes, to breake the force thereof." 



This notion was first entertained by Aristotle, 

 and repeated by Virgil, to whose poetic Imagin- 

 ation such a trait In the habits of his favourite 

 insects would be highly grateful : 



. " saspe lapillos, 

 Ut cymba; instabiles fluctu jactante saburram, 

 Tollunt: his sese per inania nubila librant." 



Georg. iv. 194. 



This fable has also been frequently found In later 

 dissertations on the natural history of the bee, and 

 adduced as a surprising instance of bee-Instinct, 

 notwithstanding the corrections of Swamnierdara 

 and Reaumur and later naturalists, all of whom 

 have siiown that the mason-bee has been mistaken 

 for the honey-bee ; the former being often seen 

 hastening through the air, loaded with sand and 



