EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 155 



FAMILY GBUIDjE, 

 OR CRANES. 



The three species of Crane which have been found in the 

 British Islands are all visitors, the Common Crane, which at 

 one time nested with us, being the only species which occurs at 

 all regularly. 



THE COMMON CKANE. 

 {Grus cinerea.)* 



Plate 46, Figs. 1, 3. 



The Crane is recorded to have been extremely numerous, no 

 doubt breeding on the extensive bogs in this country, in the 12th 

 and 14th centuries. 



It nests in suitable localities throughout Europe and Northern 

 Asia, wintering in North Africa and North-western India and 

 China. In Pomerania the nest of the Crane is generally built on 

 one of the hummocks in the swamps. It is a very slight struc- 

 ture : the top of the hummock is trampled down, and the sedge, 

 part of it fresh new foliage and part last year's dead leaves, is 

 twisted round into an apology for a nest. 



Two is the usual number of eggs laid, but in very rare instances 

 three have been found. They vary in ground-colour from brown- 

 ish-buff to greenish-buff, spotted and blotched with rich brown, 

 and with underlying markings of paler brown and greyish-pink. 

 Some specimens have most of the markings on the large end, 

 where they form a semi-confluent mass ; in some they form an 

 irregular zone, whilst in others they are evenly distributed over 

 the entire surface, many being indistinct and confluent. Certain 

 specimens have much of the brown surface-colour clouded over 

 the shell, with one or two large spots and an indistinct mass of 

 colour at the large end, intermingled with a few dark brown spots. 



* Grus communis (Bechst)— Saunders, Manual, p. 507. Grus grus (L.)— Sharpe, 

 Handb., III., p. 111. 



