NESTS AND EGGS 



OF 



BRITISH BIRDS 



CRANE 



COMMON CRANE. 

 PLATE CLVII. FIGURE II. 



Grus einerea, . . . . MACGILLIVRAY. 



Grus communis, . . . BECHSTEIN. DRESSER. 



THE Crane is not known to perch on trees. The nest, 

 a slight structure, is placed usually on raised ground, 

 in marshy land, and is constructed of grass, rushes, flags, 

 reeds, and other soft materials. 



The Crane has not been known to breed in England 

 for more than two hundred years. In Ray's translation of 

 Willughby's Ornithologia, published in 1678, it is stated : 

 " They often come to us in England, and in the fen countries 

 of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire there are great flocks 

 of them, but whether or no they breed in England (as 

 Aldrovandus writes he was told by a certain Englishman, 

 who said he had often seen their young ones) I cannot 



VOL. III. A 



