Vv GRUIDAE 
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and legs outstretched, though this is varied by countless elegant 
evolutions and gyrations, as they rise higher and higher until 
they become mere specks in the heavens, and finally disappear 
from sight. The characteristic utterance is a harsh guttural or 
resonant trumpeting sound, uttered on the ground with the head 
thrown back and the bill open, or repeated incessantly at great 
elevations; but the Whooping Crane has a clear, piercing cry, 
the Asiatic White Crane a feeble but mellow whistle, and the 
Crowned Cranes a plaintive but fairly sonorous set of notes. 
The varying calibre of the voice has been thought to be con- 
nected with the convolutions of the trachea mentioned above, 
the young giving vent to a weak pipe or trill. Virgil’s lines 
concerning the noise made before rain, and the flight, are well- 
known to Latin scholars. The food consists of grain, pulse, 
acorns, shoots, flowers, roots, tubers, bulbs, and the like, with the 
occasional addition of small mammals and birds, reptiles, amphi- 
bians, worms, insects, and even fish ; the members of this Family, 
however, dishke wading, and only swim under compulsion. Feed- 
ing chiefly in the morning and evening, when they post sentinels, 
as Rooks do, they often stand or doze upon one leg, with the head 
drawn back upon the shoulders. Cranes, which are said to pair for 
life, return to the same breeding haunts annually, where they 
either construct a large fabric of reeds, rushes, and aquatic 
herbage, or use straw and small twigs for their nest. The coni- 
eal pile, with its moderate depression on the top, is commonly 
placed in shallows, fresh materials being added if the water 
rises. Several species, on the other hand, merely scrape a hole in 
marshy ground, on dry plains, among standing corn or grass, or 
on sandy beaches, while occasionally reed-beds are selected. The 
eggs, two, or rarely three in number, are generally creamy 
white, olive-brown or buff, with reddish-brown, red, or purplish- 
erey spots and blotches; those of the Indian Sarus Cranes have 
a bluish- or greenish-white ground, while those of the Crowned 
Cranes are not uncommonly plain bluish-white. The male is 
said to incubate in some cases, and both parents tend the young 
carefully for a considerable time, though the latter run from the 
shell ; the female sits with her head drawn in upon her shoulders, 
and is usually loth to leave her charge. When wounded these 
birds are very dangerous, fighting boldly with bill and wings. 
They are very palatable when fed on grain, the breast in particular 
