1109 



GRUIDiE. 



GRUID^E. 



inn 



and in the fen countries in 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- certainly determine, either 

 from my own knowledge or from the relation of any credible person." 

 In Pennant's time he had come to the conclusion that the Cranes had 

 forsaken our island. "A single bird," says he, "was killed near 

 Cambridge about three years ago, and is the only instance I ever 

 knew of the crane being seen in this island in our time." Dr. Latham 

 mentions only four instances as occurring within his memory of the 

 Crane having been met with in England. (Pennant, 'Brit. Zool.,' 

 1812.) Montagu and Dr. Fleming mention a small flock that visited 

 Zetland in 1807, and Mr. Selby received information of one killed in 

 Oxfordshire in December 1830. The Crane can now be only regarded 1 

 as an accidental and rare visitant to our islands. 



"The flesh is very savoury and well tasted, not to say delicate" 

 (Willughby), and indeed it seems to have been highly prized in former 

 days. At the iutronazatiou of George Nevell, the archbishop above 

 alluded to, 'Mi cranes were served, and in the Northumberland 

 Household-Book the price of the Crane (Cranys) is marked sixteen 

 pence. At the marriage-feasts also above mentioned, one of the items 

 in the first is " 9 Cranes, every Crane three shillings and four pence ;" 

 and in the second we find " Item for a Standert, Cranes 2 of a dish" 

 for the second course; and in the expenses we find "Item, in 

 Cranes 9 . . . 01. 30*. Od." The long drooping feathers are valuable 

 aa plumes. 



Anthropoidti (Vieillot). Mr. Bennett remarks (' Gardens and 

 Menagerie of the Zoological Society') that the name of Anthropoides, 

 conferred upon this genus by ita founder, M. Vieillot, owes its origin 

 to a mistaken reading of a passage in Athenseus, which the French 

 academicians of the 17th century improperly applied to the Demoiselle, 

 or Xiimidiau Crane, regarding the resemblance to man implied by the 

 term Anthropoidca as a convincing proof that the Otus of the Greeks 

 was a synonym of the bird, which they were themselves describing 

 under the name of Demoiselle, from its elegant attitudes. "It is 

 difficult however," says Mr. Bennett, "to conceive how these learned 

 men, with M. Perrault at their head, could have stumbled on so gross 

 a misapprehension ; for the passages cited by them from the Greek 

 and Roman authors prove beyond all question that the Scops and 

 Otiu of the former and the Ario of the latter were in truth nothing 

 else than owls, and had consequently no connection with the 

 Numidian Crane. M. Savigny, on the other hand, refers the latter 

 bird to the Crex of Aristotle and other classical authors ; but we 

 must confess that we entertain considerable doubt of this opinion also. 

 The scattered notices of the ancient Crex appear to us by far too 

 scanty and indefinite to admit of their positive appropriation ; and 

 they combine moreover several traits which are quite irreconcileable 

 with the identity of the two animals. With the exception of this 

 distinguished naturalist, almost all the modern authors who have 

 spoken of the Demoiselle have merely copied Buffon, who with sin- 

 gular inconsistency, at the same time that he corrects the error of 

 synonymy into which the academicians had fallen, adopts all their 

 quotations founded upon this very mistake. The truth is, that the 

 real history of the bird cannot be traced with certainty beyond the 

 period of M. Perrault's memoirs, in which it was for the first time 

 described under the fanciful denomination which it has since attained." 

 We have given this passage entire because the exemplary and indus- 

 trious zoologist who penned it is, in our opinion, borne out in his 

 observations, and because it conveys a good lesson of the danger of 

 hastily appropriating Greek or Roman names to existing animals. 

 Such an appropriation should never be made without the clearest 

 evidence of the identity of the species. But however right Mr. 

 Bennett may be, the term Anthropoides is now generally received by 

 ornithologists as the generic appellation for certain species of cranes, 

 and must be retained, the only question being what species should be 

 arranged under it. The Demoiselle and the Balearic Crane were the 

 only two species of Anthropoidei (Vieillot), till a third and most 

 elegant species, Anthropoidei Stanleyunus (Vigors), Anthropoides 

 ParodUout (Bechstein), was added. Mr. Vigors would include the 

 whole of these three species in the genus ; but Mr. Bennett remarks 

 that the discovery of that species, closely allied as it is to the 

 Demoiselle, seems to determine the existence of that form as a distinct 

 type, and to render it .more necessary to isolate the Crowned or 

 Balearic Crane (Balearica pai'onina, Ardea pavonina, Linn.), under 

 another generic name, Salearica (Brisson). 



A. Virgo, Ardea Virgo of Linntcus, the Demoiselle, is about 3 feet 

 6 inches high measured to the top of the bead : from the point of the 

 bill to the tip of the tail it is about 3 feet in length. Upper part of 

 the head light gray ; sides of the head, neck, and depending breast- 

 feathers, blackish ; head and neck fully feathered. A tuft of pure 

 white loose-barbed feathers, three or four inches long, directed back- 

 wards with a curvature downwards behind each eye. General tint 

 slaty-gray; outer portions of all the quill-feathers dingy-black. 

 Secondaries longer than the primaries, forming when the wings are 

 folded dependent downward-curved plumes. Bill yellowish or flesh- 

 coloured ; . iris reddish-brown. 



The habits of the Demoiselle are migratory, and its food consists m 

 great measure of grain and seeds, though it occasionally takes small 



fishes, mollusks, and insects. Gizzard muscular. The Demoiselle 

 produced young in the menagerie at Versailles, and one which was 

 hatched and bred there lived twenty-four years. 



Demoiselle (Anthropoidei Virgo). 



Africa is the head-quarters of this bird. It has been observed in 

 the north, along the Mediterranean, the west from Egypt to Guinea, 

 in the interior, and in the south near the Cape of Good Hope. It has 

 been killed in Nepaul, according to Mr. Gould ; is found on the 

 southern coasts of the Black Sea and Caspian, and has been observed 

 at Lake Baikal. It is occasionally seen in Europe, and appears about 

 Constantinople in October. At the inundation of the Nile great 

 numbers arrive in Egypt. 



A. Stanleyanus (so named by Mr. Vigors in honour of the late Earl 

 of Derby, then Lord Stanley, President of the Zoological Society of 

 London), A. Paradisceus of Bechstein, the Stanley Crane, is in its 

 general plumage bluish-gray, the top of the tumid head, which is well 

 covered with soft feathers, is whitish, and there is a brownish post- 



Stanley Crane (Anthropoidea Paradisicus, TCcclistein 



ocular band ; the irides are chestnut-black, and the points of the 

 quills, tail, &c., are brownish-black. Length from the tip of the bill 

 to the end of the tail 3 feet 6 inches. Mr. Vigors mentions particu- 

 larly the greater length and development of the hallux iu this species, 

 in which character, he observes, the bird seems to be intermediate 

 between A. Virgo and the more typical Gruidir. He considers the 



