EMBLEMATIC OF WATCHFULNESS. 375 



seven feet in breadth. It is of a shy and wary disposition ; 

 and when a large flock alight in a field, either for the 

 purpose of feeding or resting, one or more of the party is 

 always seen standing at some little distance, with head erect, 

 and evidently on the watch. On the approach of danger, this 

 individual is the first to give the alarm and take wing, on 

 which the rest forthwith follow its example. 



With the ancients the crane, we read, was the emblem of 

 watchfulness. As such it is represented standing on one 

 foot, and holding a small stone between the toes of the other, 

 so that in case it should slumber and let fall the stone, 

 the noise might awaken it. 



According to Kaempher, the Japanese entertain a high 

 admiration for this bird, and never mention it excepting by 

 the name of Otsurisama, or his highness the crane. The 

 walls of their temples, and of the imperial palaces, are every- 

 where adorned with figures of the crane, and of the turtle, 

 both being considered as bringing good luck. 



When the crane first arrives in the peninsula in the spring, 

 it feeds principally about the fields, and is then considered as 

 fair eating; but when, at an after-period, it confines itself 

 almost entirely to boggy ground, where it lives chiefly on 

 frogs and reptiles, the country people become somewhat 

 prejudiced against it, and seldom make use of it for food. 



It usually breeds in extended morasses, far away from the 

 haunts of man. It makes its nest, consisting of stalks of 

 plants and the like, on a tussock, and often amongst willow 

 and other bushes. The female lays two eggs, of the size of 

 those of the swan, and oval in form; in colour they are 

 greenish-grey, and marked more especially towards the 

 thicker end with reddish spots, or rather blotches. She is 



