342 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
attention of the spectator ; hence, in French, the name of demoiselle 
has been given to it. It is found in Turkey and Southern Russia, in 
Northern Africa, and in some parts of Asia adjacent to the latter 
region. | 
The Crested Crane (Balearica pavonina, Fig. 135) has the top of 
its head adorned with a tuft of feathers, which it has the power of 
spreading out like a fan, so as 
to form a hendsome adorn- 
ment. Although about the 
height of the two sister-birds, 
it is more slender. Its voice 
is very loud. Readily be- 
coming familiar with man, it 
seeks his acquaintance. Its 
chief habitats are the eastern 
and northern coasts of Africa 
and some of the isles in the 
Mediterranean: according to 
the ancients, it was formerly 
common in the Balearic Is- 
lands. 
The Hooping Crane (Pso- 
phia crepitans, Latham) has a 
strong and tapering bill, shorter 
than the head; long tarsi and 
medium-sized toes, the back 
toe touching the ground at the 
extremity only. Its wings are 
ti aes short, and, in consequence, it 
Fig. 134.—Demoiselle Crane, flies with difficulty ; but, to 
make up for this deficiency, it 
can run very swiftly. This bird is but little larger than a domestic 
fowl. It is in the habit of uttering at intervals a piercing call, which 
seems as if it did not proceed from the bird itself; this cry has 
procured for it the name it possesses. It makes its nest on the 
ground, in a hole scratched out at the root of a tree, and feeds on 
grasses, seeds, and small insects. Shyness is not one of its qualities, 
and it will submit to captivity without repugnance ; it forms an attach- 
ment to its master, and solicits his caresses like a pet dog. The 
latter comparison is all the more just, as the bird renders very much 
the same service to man as that quadruped. ‘This bird is entrusted 
with the care of the flocks when at pasture, and in the evening brings 
