CRANE. 181 



And about 1667 Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich, is found 

 writing : " Cranes are often seen here in hard winters, 

 especially about the champian (sic) and fieldy part. 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 in a dish."* In 1678 Willughby, in his 

 Ornithologia, was still able to say, " They come to us often 

 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, I cannot determine, either of 

 my own knowledge, or from the relation of any credible 

 person." Ray adds no original information respecting this 

 bird. It may fairly be assumed that the Crane has ceased 

 to breed in this country for nearly three centuries, and that 

 with the dying out of the immediate descendants of those 

 individuals which used to nest in our marshes, a gradual 

 decrease took place even in the number of those annual 

 visitants which were impelled by the cold of the Continent 

 to seek their food in the milder and more open fens of these 

 western islands. With the drainage of their former haunts, 

 the increase of population, and the general use of fire-arms, 

 even these periodical visits ceased ; and, in the present cen- 

 tury, the Crane can only be considered a rare and irregular 

 straggler to our shores, generally in autumn and winter : 

 although sometimes, on the spring migration. Cornwall, 

 Devon, Somerset, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, 

 Oxfordshire, Suifolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire — the latest near 

 Spalding on the 25th October, 1882 (Zool. 1882, p. 463)— 

 Gloucestershire, and Yorkshire, are amongst the counties 

 visited ; the years 1866 and 1869 having been unusually 

 productive in arrivals. 



In Scotland, two occurrences are cited by Mr. R. Gray in 

 Ross-shire ; one in Aberdeenshire ; and one near Hawick, in 

 Jedburghshire ; whilst in the Orkneys a good many examples 

 are on record, and even more in the Shetland Islands — one, 

 evidently on migration, having been obtained in Unst so 

 recently as the end of May, 1869. In Ireland, the occur- 



* Wilkin's Edition, vol. iv. p. .314. Pickering, 183.5. 



