COMMON CRANE. 185 



the marshes ; and also on lizards, frogs, serpents, and fish. 

 Their nests are formed in trees, and they lay three or four 

 white eggs. 



The bill is long, dilated at the extremity, and some- 

 what spoon-shaped. The colour of the plumage is 

 white, except the chin, which is black. On the hinder 

 part of the head there is a short crest. The bill and legs 

 are black. 



36. HERON TRIBE. 



The bodies of these birds are slender, and their neck 

 and bill long. They feed 'principally on fish, reptiles, 

 and serpents, and are excessively rapacious and destruc- 

 tive. 



Common Crane. It is principally in large and ex- 

 tensive marshes that these birds find their subsistence, 

 form their nests, and rear their offspring. When assem- 

 bled on the ground they set guards during the night. 

 The flock sleep with their heads concealed under their 

 wings; but the sentinels watch with their heads erect, 

 and if any object alarms them, they immediately give 

 notice by a loud cry. Some writers have gone so far 

 as to state, that the sentinels, which stand always on one 

 foot, hold in the other a stone, in order that, if over- 

 come by sleep, its falling may awake them ; but this is 

 considered to be fabulous. These birds breed in the 

 northern parts of Europe, and have, sometimes, though 

 rarely, been seen in England. Their eggs are only two 

 in number, and of a bluish colour. After their young 

 ones are fledged, the Cranes migrate southward, and are. 

 supposed to pass the winter in Egypt and India. Of 



