CHAPTER IX 



CRANES, RAILS, AND BUSTARDS 

 Order— GRUIFORMES 



The Cranes, Rails, and Bustards, though externally very different 

 in appearance, are yet really closely related. The Cranes and Rails 

 are fen-birds, the Bustards, on the other hand, are birds which 

 frequent sandy wastes. While the Cranes, at most, wade but " knee- 

 deep," the Rails swim and dive with ease. Both are vegetable feeders, 

 though this diet is varied by insects, and molluscs such as snails and 

 slugs, and worms. The Bustards, too, live largely on vegetable 

 matter, but they also eat small mammals such as mice, and reptiles. 



The Crane (Plate XIII. fig. i) was once common in Britain, but, alas ! 

 it is now only met with in these islands on very rare occasions. It 

 used to breed in the fens and swamps of East Anglia, but that was 

 three hundred years ago. Not only is it a large and very beautiful 

 bird — measuring over 4 feet in length — but it is remarkable, further- 

 more, for the curious way in which the windpipe is disposed of. In- 

 stead of running straight down the neck to the lungs, it passes first 

 into a large chamber formed by inflating and hollowing out the 

 keel of the breast-bone. After forming a coil, or loop, within this 

 strange chamber, it emerges therefrom and passes backwards to the 

 lungs. By the increase in length which the windpipe thus gains, 

 an extremely loud and resonant voice is produced. The Crowned 

 Crane (Plate IV. fig.9) is an African bird remarkable for the curious 

 tuft of bristle-like feathers which surmounts the head. 



The Rail tribe are all small birds, of shy, rather skulking habits 

 and feeble flight. One of the smallest is the Little Crake (Plate XIII. 



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