Introduction. 3 



They afford oue of the most beautiful instances of animal motion we can anywhere 

 meet with. They fly at a great height, and, wheeling in circles, appear to rest without 

 effort on the surface of an aerial current, by whose eddies they are borne about in an 

 endless series of evolutions. Each individual describes a large circle in the air, 

 independently of its associates, and uttering loud, distinct, and repeated cries. They 

 continue thus to wing their flight upwards, gradually receding from the earth, until 

 they become mere specks to the sight, and finally disappear altogether, leaving only 

 the discordant music of their concert to fall faintly on the ear, exploring 



Heavens not its own, and worlds unknown before. 



That is to put llie matter poetically, while the facts of the case will be 

 treated of iu due course. Virgil writes : 



Quales sub nubibus atris 

 Strymoniaj dant signa grues, atque asthera tranant. 

 Cum sonitu, fugiuntque uotos clamore seoundo. — zEneid, x. 264, &c. 



And Milton : 



Part loosely wing the region, part more wise, 



In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, 



Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 



Their aery caravan, high over seas 



Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 



Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crauo 



Her annual voyage, borne on winds ; the air 



Flotes as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes. 



These birds rise with some difficulty, running forward two or three paces 

 before gaining the use of their wings, and during iiight they extend both 

 neck and legs, their feet showing beyond the tail-tip. On alighting they 

 also run two or three paces. Mr. Gould, in his " Handbook to the Birds 

 of Australia" (vol. ii., p. 291), remarks of the Australian species that: 



When near the ground the action of the wings is very laboured ; but when soaring 

 in a series of circles at such a height in the air as to be almost imperceptible to human 

 vision, it appears to be altogether as easy and graceful ; it is while performing these 

 gyrations that it frequently utters its hoarse, croaking cry. 



Cranes of one or more species are found almost everywhere, according to 

 season, with the exceptions of South America, the Malayan and Papuan 

 archipelagos, and the scattered islands of the Pacific. The common 

 European species (celebrated in all recorded time for its migrations — " the 

 crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming ") lived nume- 

 rously in the fenny counties of England until driven away by the 

 drainage of its haunts, and the ever-increasing pressure of human popula- 

 tion ; but it is still plentiful in summer in the north of the Scandinavian 

 peninsula, in Finland, and thence eastward, and the species of crane are 

 nowhere else so numei'ous as in furthermost Asia, where six, if not seven, 

 species are met with eastward of Lake Baikal. It is somewhat remarkable 

 that a peculiar species of crane inhabits Australia, as also a peculiar species 



B 2 



