6 Lost BritisJz Birds. 



gave protection to egg as well as to bird ; but in the case 

 of this species, it was of no avail. It is not known when 

 the crane ceased to breed in England, but it is certain that 

 it continued to resort to our shores in considerable numbers 

 down to nearly the end of the seventeenth century. 



Willoughby, in 1676, says : " They come to us often in 

 England, and in the fen counties, in Lincolnshire and Cam- 

 bridgeshire, there are great flocks of them." As to whether 

 or no they bred at that time he says, " I cannot certainly 

 determine, either from my own knowledge or from the 

 relation of any credible person." 



At the present day the crane is a rare visitor a lost 

 wanderer from happier realms. The resonant, far-sounding 

 cry of this noble bird one of the most fascinating sounds of 

 wild nature, especially when several individuals, as their 

 custom is, unite their voices in a chorus will probably never 

 be heard again in England, except from captives in an en- 

 closure. With the crane's figure we are perhaps more 

 familiar than with that of any other large species, and will 

 be so as long as we continue to import decorative hangings, 

 screens and pictures by the million from Japan. To that 

 artistic people the crane is pre-eminent among birds for its 

 beauty and stately grace as is the chrysanthemum among 

 flowers. 



II. WHITE SPOONBILL Platalea lencorodia. Of this 

 strikingly handsome species, Sir Thomas Browne has the 

 following notice in his Account of the Birds found in 

 Norfolk : " The Platea, or Shovelard, which build on the 

 tops of high trees. They formerly built in the hernary at 

 Claxton and Keedham, now at Trimley in Suffolk. They 

 come in March, and are shot by fowlers, not for their meat, 

 but for the handsomeness of the same ; remarkable in their 

 white colour, copped crown, and spoon or spatule like bill." 



The date of this record is 1678, and shows that the 

 passion for killing things, merely because they are beautiful 

 when alive, is not a growth of the present time. Probably 



