198 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



on each side. The neck was much stained with rusty brown. 

 It is preserved in the museum at Chichester, and recorded 

 hy myself in the ^Zoologist ' (p. 4512). 



The taking of the eggs of the Crane was prohibited by an 

 Act passed in 1534, under the maximum penalty of 20d. for 

 every egg. 



The Crane appears to have been much prized for the table, 

 as in the ' Household Book ' of the fifth Earl of Northum- 

 berland (1512) occurs this entry : " It is thought the Cranys 

 must be hadde at Chrystymas and other principal feestes for 

 my Lord's o^nie mecs, so they be bought at 15d. a piece.'' 

 Nevertheless, the learned Dr. Mouflfet, in his ' Health's Im- 

 provement,' edited by Christopher Beunet, Ph.D., 1655, 

 considers '' the flesh (of the Crane) distinctly unfit for sound 

 men's tables, and much more unmeat for them that be sick ; 

 yet being young, and killed with a Goshawk, and hanged for 

 two or three daies by the heels, eaten with hot geleutine, and 

 drowned in sack, it is permitted unto indifferent stomachs." 



The food of the Crane appears to be corn, acorns, fenny 

 seeds and bents, as well as potatoes. Its flight is described 

 as with the head and neck fully stretched out, with a re- 

 markable casting up of the wings in a direction over the 

 back after each downward stroke. The voice is loud and 

 trumpet-like. (See an interesting account of the Crane in 

 Lapland by Mr. John Wolley Junr., 'Ibis,' 1859, pp. 191- 

 198.) 



I have two specimens in my own collection, which were 

 caught in Spain by wire nooses placed in a hole in the ground, 

 baited with olives. The fat is used by the Spaniards as a 

 remedy for rheumatism and bruises. 



