Grits communis. 65 



keep a good look-out on all sides. Their whooping and trumpeting 

 enlivened the watches of the night, and till dawn we could hear the flocks 

 passing overhead on their way to their quarters close by." 

 Blauford in his Zoology of Persia, vol. ii., p. 286, says : 



It doubtless may be found in many parts of Persia during the migratory season, 

 and it is probable that G. virrjo and G. leur.ogeranus both visit parts of Persia at times, 

 both being found in India, and also on the shores of the Caspian. I saw floeks of 

 cranes flying overhead on two or three occasions in Baluchistan about March, either 

 the common or the Demoiselle. Major St. John says cranes are very plentiful in 

 southern Persia, but very wary. 



The General Migration of the Common Crane is thus described by 

 Prof. Newton. 



The Crane's aerial journeys are of a very extended kind ; on its way from beyond 

 the borders of the Tropic of Cancer to within the Arctic Circle, or on the return 

 voyage, its flocks may be described passing overhead at a marvellous height, or halting 

 for rest and refreshment on the wide meadows that border some great river, while the 

 seeming order with which its ranks are marshalled during flight has long attracted 

 attention. The Crane takes up its winter-quarters under the burning sun of Central 

 Africa and India, but early in spring returns northwards. Not a few examples reach 

 the chill polar soils of Lapland and Siberia, but some tarry in the south of Europe and 

 breed in Spain, and, it is supposed, in Tui-key. The greater number, however, occupy 

 the intermediate zone and pass the summer in Russia, North Germany, and Scandi- 

 navia. Soon after their arrival in these countries the flocks break up into pairs, whose 

 nuptial ceremonies are accompanied by loud and frequent trumpetings, and the 

 respective breeding-places of each are chosen. — (Encyl. Brit. Art. Crane.) 



In an article on " Taking Passage Hawks in Holland," Mr. J. B. 

 Harting, referring to the migration of birds across the great heath of 

 Valkenswaard, in North Brabant, thus incidentally alludes to the Common 

 Crane. 



The falconer's hut would be a rare post of observation for any naturalist desirous 

 of studying the subject of migration ; and many an interesting sight would reward his 

 patient and lonely watching. 



Early one morning a vast number of cranes appeared ; seven flocks, numbering 

 in all about a thousand birds, arrived in succession, and alighted upon the heath about 

 one hundred and fifty yards from the hut. Each flock as it appeared was hailed with 

 noisy greetings by the first comers, and the whole company with outstretched wings 

 performed may strange evolutions. They rested for several hours, and then, with loud 

 cries, rose upon the wing and took their departure, affording a strange and never to be 

 forgotten spectacle.— (J'i'eW, March 16, 1878.) 



In Great Britain the Crane is now only an ocasional visitant. One 

 immature specimen, which was shot at Aberdeen in May, 1851, was the 

 last bird examined by Macgillivray before his death. Four specimens shot 

 and several others seen in 1869, were recorded by Mr. H. Stevenson, in 

 The Birds of Norfolk, vol. ii., page 125. The author in a communication 

 to The Field remarked that the occurrence of so many of these rare visi- 



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