QUEER DOINGS OF A CRANE. 



WRITER on "Animal Help- 

 ers and Servers " gives a 

 remarkable account of a 

 tame Crane, communi- 

 cated by Von Seyffert. 

 Von Seyffert had a pair of tame Cranes 

 which soon lost all fear of man and of 

 domestic animals, and became strongly 

 attached to the former. Their life in 

 a German village, in which agriculture 

 was the sole employment and the com- 

 munal system of joint herding of 

 cattle and swine and driving them 

 together to the common pasture pre- 

 vailed, was very much to their taste. 

 They soon knew all the inhabitants in 

 the place and used to call regularly 

 at the houses to be fed. Then the 

 female died and the survivor at once 

 took as a new friend a bull. He stood 

 by the bull in the stall and kept the 

 flies off him, screamed when he roared, 

 danced before him and followed him 

 out with the herd. In this association 

 the Crane learned the duties of cow- 

 herd, so that one evening he brought 

 home the whole of the village herd of 

 heifers unaided and drove them into 

 the stable. From that time the Crane 



undertook so many duties that he was 

 busy from dawn till night. He acted 

 as policeman among the poultry, 

 stopping all fights and disorder. He 

 stood by a horse when left in a cart 

 and prevented it from moving by 

 pecking its nose and screaming. A 

 Turkey and a Game Cock were found 

 fighting, whereon the Crane first fought 

 the Turkey, then sought out and 

 thrashed the cock. Meantime it 

 herded the cattle, not always with 

 complete success. The bovines were 

 collected in the morning by the sound 

 of a horn and some would lag behind. 

 On one occasion the Crane went back, 

 drove up some lagging heifers through 

 the street and then frightened them 

 so much that they broke away and ran 

 two miles in the wrong direction. The 

 bird could not bring them back, but 

 drove them into a field, where it 

 guarded them until they were fetched. 

 It would drive out trespassing cattle 

 as courageously as a dog and, unlike 

 most busybodies, was a universal fav- 

 orite and pride of the village. Cornhill 

 Magazine. 



44 



