INTRODUCTION, 43 
lands up to the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was 
one of the largest of true British Birds; now it is but a rare 
visitor to our shores. Its nest is never built in a tree, but on 
a small mound or “hummock” in some swamp. Cranes are 
Fig. 42. 

The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana). 
even said never to perch on a tree, and they feed largely on 
vegetable substances. The Demoiselle Crane ( Grus virgo, fig. 43) 
is a very elegant Bird, still more rarely found in our Islands. 
About seventeen species of the Crane family are known, whereof 
all but three are inhabitants of the Old World. Amongst these 
