12i INDIAN SPORTING BIRDS 



potatoes, water-melons, and other vegetables. Dal is about their 

 favourite of all crops, and w^here this grows higher than they 

 are, they are more easily got at than is usually the case, since 

 they cannot see the foe approaching in the distance. 



In the ordinary way they are as wary as most large birds, 

 and take careful stalking, always having sentries on duty when 

 feeding ; they are, however, particularly well worth pursuit, as 

 not only are they nuisances to the farmer, but excellent game 

 when obtained, always provided they have had time to eat 

 enough of the vegetable food most of them prefer to get rid of 

 the coarse flavour resulting from the diet of animal small fry 

 they have been eating before the crops are available. Tbis crane 

 is, in fact, one of the delicacies of the classical and mediaeval 

 cuisine which is really worth eating ; this being more than can 

 be said for a good many of the fowl our forefathers used to 

 relish so much— in days, be it remembered, when fresh meat 

 during at least half the year was very hard to come by. 



At night cranes resort, if possible, to an island sandbank to 

 roost, where they sleep standing on one leg. This is, no doubt, 

 as a protection against four-footed enemies, although such 

 vigilant birds are not very likely to be surprised by such foes. 

 Few birds also will attack this powerful species, and Prince 

 Mirza, in his valuable and interesting book on hawking, trans- 

 lated by Colonel Phillott, says that if 3^ou want a falcon to take 

 cranes, you must not let her fly at herons, these being so much 

 easier game. He also says that if one member of a flock is 

 brought down by the hawk, its companions will all come to its 

 assistance, and much commends their esprit de corps. Wounded 

 cranes, by the way, run fast and swim fairly well, while they 

 are nasty customers to tackle without a stick. 



Their trumpeting note is very fine and characteristic, and, 

 in addition to their habit of forming lines and wedges m flight, 

 has always made them conspicuous; as Dante says: — 



" And as the cranes go trumpeting, their call, 

 Trailing their long-drawn line across the skj'." 



And one of the classical crane stories is of the poet Ibycus, 

 who, done to death by highwaymen, called with his dying 

 breath on a passing flight of cranes to avenge him. The story 



