CRANE. 127 
as given in the subjoined note (reckoning the number of 
weeks, from the last quarter-day, on which each separate 
account commences), two appear to have been killed in 
autumn, one in spring, and one in winter; the three 
first occurring about the usual migratory periods. Sir 
Thomas Browne (circa 1667), evidently regarded this 
species as a migrant only, in his time, as, in his 
“Account of Birds found in Norfolk,” he says “Cranes 
are often seen here in hard winters,* especially about 
the champian and fieldy part,” but adds, “it seems they 
have been more plentiful; for, in a bill of fare, when the 
Mayor entertained the Duke of Norfolk, I met with 
cranes ina dish.”+ But for this very decided statement 
of so accurate an observer, the following extract from 
the diary of the “accomplished”? Evelyn, who first 
made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas at Norwich, in 
October, 1671, might lead one to infer that the Knight’s 
* Willughby (1676), writing of the crane in his “ Ornithology,” 
remarks, “They come often to us in England; and in the fen countries 
in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire there are great flocks of them, 
but whether or no they breed in England (as Aldrovandus writes 
he was told by a certain Englishman [most probably Turner], who 
said he had often seen their young ones), I cannot certainly deter- 
mine, either of my own knowledge or from the relation of any 
credible person.” 
+ In the Northumberland “ Household Book” (1512), we find 
the following entry :—“Itemit is thought that cranys muste be 
hadde at Crystynmas and other principall Feestes for my Lordes 
owne Mees, so they be boght at xvj4-a pece.” In the Lord North 
* Accounts” (1577) one crane is charged as much as “ xiijs- i1ij 45” 
with herons at about 3s. each. But that this great bird was classed 
amongst the chief delicacies, in former times, is shown by the 
following stanza from Barclay’s “ Egloges,” a.p. 1570 :— 
“The crane, the fesant, the pecocke, and curlewe, 
The partriche, plover, bittorn, and heronsewe, 
Seasoned so well in licour redolent, 
That the hall is full of pleasent smell and scent.” 
