Storks £2? Cranes 247 



uproot a large bed of geraniums in double-quick 

 time. 



They are better at this kind of work than at plant- 

 ing anything. 



When I first had my native companions, they 

 worked away splendidly at some begonia beds, but 

 unfortunately their zeal and labour was mistaken, for 

 it happened to be in June. They may have been like 

 we were in childish days : anxious to see whether the 

 plants were rooting nicely ! 



And so my cranes were politely shown the 

 garden gate, which was carefully closed behind 

 them. For the future they had to be content with 

 digging up bits of turf in the rougher grass of the 

 park. 



The Stanley crane of South Africa is extremely 

 quaint and graceful, with its pearl-grey plumage, 

 its curious puffed head, and its elongated feathers 

 of the wing, which almost touch the ground. 



Then there is the crowned crane (balearic) of 

 the northern region of Ethiopia, with its wonderful 

 buff-coloured shaving-brush on the back of its head, 

 and rich chestnut of the secondaries of the wings, 

 set off by the white of the wing coverts, and dark 

 grey of the other parts. 



It was, I think, a crane of this species that was 

 taken by Colonel Smith-Dorrien from the com- 

 pound of the Khalifa's house in Omdurman, after 

 the great battle of 1898, and sent to Tresco Abbey. 

 The demoiselle is the smallest of the family. A 

 crane often seen in the beautiful Japanese drawings 



