34O REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



These birds were well known in ancient times ; Homer, Herodotus, 

 Aristotle, Plutarch, ^Elian, Pliny, and Strabo have noticed them and 

 their migrations. Unfortunately, not content with correct observa- 

 tions, they have given credence to some most ridiculous fables, 

 invented in Greece and Egypt, the classic and fertile lands of the 

 marvellous. Thus, according to the Egyptian story, the Cranes made 

 an expedition to the sources of the Nile to fight against the Pygmies, 

 who were, as Aristotle says, " a race of little men, mounted on little 

 horses, who dwelt in caves." According to Pliny, these little men 

 were armed with arrows, and mounted on rams ; they abode in the 

 mountains of India, and came down every spring to wage war 

 against the Cranes. The Roman naturalist fancies that they succeeded 

 in this destructive aim, for the town of Gerania, which even in his 

 time was ruined and deserted, was formerly, he asserts, inhabited by 

 a race of Pygmies, who were driven out by the Cranes. In the views 

 of some commentators, these Pygmies were nothing but monkeys, 

 but we now know from Mr. H. M. Stanley and other explorers that 

 the ancients were right, and that the Pygmies are men. 



The Greeks have also invented two stories about Cranes, which 

 are certainly very ingenious, but result from the error of attributing 

 too much importance to trifles. They say Cranes carry a pebble in 

 their mouths when they cross Mount Taurus, so that they are com- 

 pelled to keep mute ; they thus avoid exciting the attention of the 

 eagles inhabiting those districts, which birds are much disposed to 

 do them mischief. In the same way, the Crane which is placed as 

 sentinel to watch over his sleeping companions is bound to stand on 

 one leg and carry a stone in the other claw, so that if he allows 

 himself to be overtaken by slumber, the fall of the pebble would 

 wake him up. It was, as we are aware, the expedient of the youthful 

 Aristotle to hold an iron ball suspended over a metal basin in order 

 to wake himself if he succumbed to sleep. We should ascribe too 

 much ingenuity to the Crane in imputing to it an action of Aristotle's. 



The members of this interesting feathered tribe were said to 

 possess certain virtues. The thigh bone of a Crane imparted to him 

 who possessed it remarkable vigour and elasticity of limb. Its brain 

 also was a kind of love-philtre ; it transformed the ugliest man into a 

 perfect Adonis, and won for him the favour of the fair. 



It is, moreover, to the Crane that the Greeks are indebted for one 

 of their favourite dances. Be it understood that we are now return- 

 ing to plain matter of fact. The games and dances which Cranes 

 indulge in amongst themselves are not mere idle stories ; observers 

 of our own day, well worthy of credit, have proved their authenticity. 



