248 INDEX. 



and fattened for the tables of the great in Rome ; at present 

 they are considered all over Europe as wretched eating ; 

 qualities of its flesh ; their note the loudest of all other 

 birds ; and often heard in the clouds, when the bird itself 

 is unseen ; amazing heights to which they ascend when they 

 fly ; though unseen themselves, they have distinct vision of 

 every object below ; extraordinary length and contortion of 

 its windpipe; use made of their clangorous sound; they 

 rise but heavily, are shy birds, and seldom let the fowler 

 approach them ; their depredations usually in the darkest 

 nights, when they enter a field of corn, and trample it down 

 as if crossed over by a regiment of men ; corn their favourite 

 food ; scarce any other comes amiss to them ; Iledi's ex- 

 periments to this purpose; a little falcon pursues, and 

 often disables it ; method used on such occasions by those 

 fond of hawking ; barbarous custom of breeding up cranes 

 to be thus baited ; easily tamed ; Albertus Magnus says it 

 has a particular affection for man ; the female distinguished 

 from the male by not being bald behind; never lays above 

 two eggs at a time ; the young are soon fit to fly ; and 

 unfledged, they run with such swiftness that a man cannot 

 easily overtake them ; Aldrovandus assures us one was kept 

 tame for above forty years ; the vulgar bear the crane a com- 

 passionate regard ; prejudices in its favour; heinous offence 

 in some countries to kill a crane, 297. Distinctions between 

 the crane and the stork, 306. 



Crane, the Balearic, from the coast of Africa, and the Cape 

 de Verde Islands ; its description ; habits ; has been describ- 

 ed by the name of Sea Peacock ; real Balearic Crane of 

 Pliny ; foreign birds of the crane kind described ; the jabiru, 

 the jabiruguaca, theanhima; the buffoon bird, or Numi- 

 dian crane, described, iv. 310. Place where the crane 

 kind seem to have formed their general rendezvous, 329. 

 The flamingo the most remarkable of all the kind, the tallest, 

 bulkiest, and most beautiful ; described, 329. Small birds 

 of the crane kind, 339- 



Cricetus, the German Rat, by M. Buffon called the hamster ; 

 its description ; is the greatest pest in the countries where 

 found, and every method made use of to destroy it ; its hole 

 a curious object for contemplation ; shows a skill superior to 

 the rest of the rat kind ; description of it ; their storehouses 

 contain two bushels of good grain in each apartment ; means 

 of finding out their retreats ; produce young twice or thrice 

 a-year, and bring five or six at a time ; their devastations 

 produce a famine ; they destroy each other ; their fur very 

 valuable, iii. 188. 



Cricket, difference from the grasshopper ; their voice ; food ; 

 never drink ; sound of drums and trumpets makes them for- 

 sake their situation, vi. 28. 



