LIVING CREATURES. 



The crane was in favor with the Greeks and Romans 

 because of its yearly visit and its delicate flesh. Thus 

 Homer, the greatest Grecian poet, sings: 



So when inclement winters vex the plain 

 With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, 

 To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly 

 With noise and order through the mid-way sky. 



Homer, and Aris- 

 totle, a Grecian phi- 

 losopher and natural- 

 ist, both refer to the 

 destruction which the 

 cranes bring to the 

 wheat fields. They 

 describe a race of 

 pygmies, or dwarfs, 

 who inhabited, it was 

 supposed, a part of 

 upper Egypt. Upon 

 the newly-sown wheat 

 fields of these little 

 people, the cranes sud- 

 denly descended from 

 the high air. When 

 the pygmies ran out 

 to drive away the 

 mischief-makers, the cranes gobbled them up and car- 

 ried them off so the story goes. 



Leaving the waders and the water, we find the legs 

 and feet of the birds change. The legs are shorter, 

 and the feet are not fully webbed. Some of them are 



Flamingoes and Nest. 



