214 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



met its untimely fate at om* hands, has looked on many a vision 

 which man's eye has never rested on, and visited many a shrine of 

 Nature, which man's impious tread shall never desecrate ; and we 

 surround our newlj'-acquired prize with a fictitious value, with 

 which our wandering and romantic imagination (if you will, my 

 prosaic reader,) has invested it. Yes ! it is not merely the selfish 

 feeling of possessing a specimen which nobody else possesses ; nor 

 simply the good fortune which has accrued to you personally in the 

 obtaining so highly-prized a rarity in the ornithological world, that 

 enhances the value of the bird you turn over and over in your hand 

 with fond and lingering eyes ; but it is rather the mystery of its 

 untold life, which has thus suddenly been brought into contact with 

 your own, and the vague imaginings which throng in upon your 

 mind as you inspect it. 



GRUIDiE. 



Grus Cinerea. " The Crane." First and foremost in the list of 

 the Grallatores stands the Crane; the sole reprsesentative of its 

 family that is, or rather was, indigenous to our shores. It is a 

 magnificent bird of some five feet in extreme length ; making our 

 better-known Heron look but a pigmy at its side. Amongst the 

 village folk the Heron is very commonly called the Crane, just as 

 they will term the Buzzard a Kite, or any kind of the smaller Falcons 

 a Hawk; causing some confusion, and at times much disappoint- 

 ment, to the young ornithologist or collector. This species now-a- 

 days is very rarely met with in our islands, though it seems to be 

 scattered very generally throughout the length and breadth of the 

 Old World. I remember when I was a boy at Winchester my 

 ornithological ardour being excited by the account of three Cranes 

 which had been frequenting for some time a place called Hele, near 

 Exeter, and close to which my especial chum, Joseph Were, had 

 one day managed to creep : and I well remember my taxing him 

 with these Cranes being common Herons ; and he as vigorously 

 asserting that they were veritable Cranes, inasmuch as he knew 

 both the species well, and was quite aware of the extreme rarity of 

 the latter birds. The nearest authenticated instance I can hear of 



