4 .ildtKiijrajih of the Cnnics. 



of bustard, which latter has its nearest congener in the still finer great bus- 

 tard of India (which is uukuuwn out of India properly so called), and there 

 is no bird of either kind in the intervening countries, excepting the Indian 

 cranes in the great Indo-Chinese peninsula. Some of the northern species 

 extend their migrations to within the limits of the arctic circle. The fossil 

 remains of three or four species of Gru)< have been determined from sundry 

 tertiary deposits of Europe and North America. 



I doubt if any of the cranes are fishers, or at least habitually so, though 

 once in a way they may happen to pick up a small fish ; as more commonly 

 they will seize any small quadruped or reptile that comes in their way. I 

 have seen a tame Common Crane ((?. communis) pick up a quail, which it 

 would doubtless have gulped down if undisturbed ; but on being pursued it 

 dropped its pi-ey uninjured. For the most part, they are mainly vegetable- 

 feeders, and will thrive upon grain only, to the crops of which some of the 

 species are exceedingly destructive, while others are much less so. They 

 feed chiefly in the early morning, and rest during the day in open places 

 — as sandbanks in rivers, or in extensive sheets of shallow water ("jheels," as 

 they are termed iu India) — where their vision can command an exceedingly 

 wide range around, returning to the fields for another feed towards 

 evening. In common with many other gregarious birds as well as 

 quadrupeds, they have always sentinels on the look-out while the rest of the 

 flock trustfully repose ; and they likewise have them on the watch in their 

 marauding expeditions to the crops of grain or pulse. Old .^sop's fable of 

 the stork being captured in the evil companionship of the cranes, and being 

 condemned to death for thus associating with notorious grain-plunderers, 

 indicates that he knew well enough the two kinds of bird — far better indeed, 

 as I have remarked on a former occasion, than did the renowned prince of 

 mediaeval painters, who commits the zoological mistake of introducing 

 cranes instead of storks into his world-famous cartoon of the miraculous 

 draught of fishes. In the grass-paddocks in which cranes are usually con- 

 fined in vivaria, they have more or less the habit of tearing up the grass in 

 quest of earthworms, and so rendering their allotted place of abode 

 unsightly. Mr. Howard Saunders remarks that in Spain the Common 

 Crane is " partial to acorns, and in the Dehesa de Remonte it interfered 

 so much with the fattening of the pigs which are driven ia to feed, that 

 war was declared against the species by the proprietor": {Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 389.) 



From various observations made upon different species of this family, 

 it appears that they pair for life, and that some at least of them do not 

 breed until their second year, as the Saras (6r. antigone) and the Asiatic 

 White Crane {G. leiicogeranos) ; but it is certain that the American White 

 Crane (G. americana) propagates while stiU in the plumage of immaturity. 

 Mr. Hume has especially shown that the Asiatic White Craue does not breed 



