92 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family GEUID^E. Genus GBUS. 



COMMON CRANE. 



GEUS CINEEEA. Meyer and Wolf. 

 PLATE XIV. 



Ardea grus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 234 (1766). 



Qrus cinerea, Meyer and Wolf, Taschenb. ii. p. 350 (1810) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p, 20 



(1852); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 570 (1884) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. 



B. p. 155, pi. 46 (1896). 

 Qrus communis, Bechstein, Naturg. Deutsch. iii. p. 60 (1793); Dresser, B. Eur. vii. 



p. 337, pi. 505 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4. iii. p. 178 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. 



Brit. B. pt. xii. (1890) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 212 (1893). 

 Qrus grus (Linn.), Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiii. p. 250 (1894) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. 



Brit. iii. p. Ill (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: For more than three hundred 

 years the Crane has ceased to breed in our islands, and for little less a period has 

 ceased to visit them in winter with its wonted regularity. Its only stronghold in 

 England appeared to be the swamps and fens of the eastern counties. It is now 

 only a rare and accidental wanderer on migration to England, of less frequent 

 appearance on the mainland of Scotland, and of still less in Ireland. It is of 

 frequent occurrence in the Orkneys, and still more in the Shetlands. The year 

 1869 was remarkable for the visits of this bird to our islands. As regards recent 

 Irish appearances, a male was shot in County Down in May, 1882, and two were 

 seen (one of which was shot) in County Mayo in January, 1884. During the 

 twelfth and fourteenth centuries it is said to have bred commonly in the bogs of 

 the Emerald Isle. Foreign: Palaearctic region ; parts of the Oriental region in 

 winter. It breeds in localities suited to its requirements throughout Europe and 

 Northern Asia. It is occasionally seen at the Faroes on passage. In Scandinavia 

 and Eussia it breeds locally up to lat. 68 ; in West Siberia no higher than the 

 Arctic circle ; whilst in the valley of the Yenisei it does not appear to have been 

 met with beyond lat. 60. Although not met with hitherto in Eastern Siberia, it 

 is recorded from Kamtschatka by Pallas, and breeds in Eussian Turkestan, the 

 Baikal country, and the Amoor valley. On passage it occurs in Mongolia and 

 North China, but doubtfully in Japan, and is a winter visitor to South China 

 and Northern India. Once more returning to the west we find it wintering in 

 Persia and Palestine, in various parts of South Europe, in Abyssinia, Egypt, Nubia, 

 and Algeria. South of the limits already traced in Europe it breeds in Eussia, 

 Turkey, the valley of the Danube, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Andalusia, North 

 Germany, Poland, and the Baltic Provinces. 



