THE COMMON CRANE. 373 



a nut to naturalists, that "its bill and feet are red, and 'its 

 excrement also deep red; for it feeds on periwinkles and 

 the like on the sea-shore, which beyond doubt causes the 

 red colour, from which purple is extracted !" 



This bird, on the coast at least, breeds on the shelf of 

 a rock. It makes no nest whatever. Occasionally, it is 

 true, we saw fragments of shells, &c., at the bottom of the 

 nest, such as it was, but these apparently had been there 

 previously. Hewitson, in his interesting work on Oology, 

 imagines Yarrell to labour under mistake, when saying that 

 he had found as many as four eggs in the nest of this bird. 

 But in this matter I can, from personal observation, con- 

 firm Yarrell's statement ; for though two to three eggs are 

 more common, it is not- unusual to meet with four. 



The Common Crane (Trana, Sw. ; Grus cinerea, Bechst.) 

 was not uncommon with us; a pair or two indeed were 

 believed to breed in the vicinity of Ronnum. A few of these 

 birds pass the summer months in Scania, Smaland, and other 

 of the southern provinces of Sweden, but much the larger 

 portion in the central and northern parts of the peninsula ; 

 at times, indeed, far within the polar circle. A good many^ 

 to my knowledge, bred in the extensive moors and morasses 

 studding the Wermeland and Dalecarlian forests, where we 

 not unfrequently obtained their nests. It migrates, and none 

 remain in the peninsula during the winter. It is not un- 

 common in Denmark, though much scarcer than it was 

 formerly. It breeds in several places in the Duchies, more 

 especially in that of Holstein. 



This bird appears early in the south of Sweden. In 

 Scania the peasants have an old rhyme to the effect that 

 on the third Thursday in March, the crane sets foot on 



