552 



A HISTORY OF 



If we consider the natural power of this 

 class, in a comparative view, they will seem 

 rather inferior to those of every other tribe. 

 Their nests are more simple than those of the 

 sparrow ; and their methods of obtaining food 

 less ingenious than those of the falcon ; the pie 

 exceeds them in cunning; and though they 

 have all the voraciousness of the poultry tribe, 

 they want their fecundity. None of this kind, 

 therefore, have been taken into man's society, 

 or under his protection; they are neither caged, 

 like the nightingale ; nor kept tame, like the 

 turkey ; but lead a life of precarious liberty, in 

 fens and marshes, at the edges of lakes, and 

 along the sea-shore. They all live upon fish 

 or insects, one or two only excepted ; even 

 those that are called mudsuckers, such as the 

 snipe and the woodcock, it is more than pro- 

 bable, grope the bottom of marshy places only 

 for such insects as are deposited there by their 

 kind, and live in a vermicular state, in pools 

 and plashes, till they take wing, and become 

 flying insects. 



All this class, therefore, that are fed upon 

 insects, their food b ing easily digestible, are 

 good to be eaten ; while those who live en- 

 tirely upon fish, abounding in oil, acquire in 

 their flesh the rancidity of their diet, and are, 

 in general, unfit for our tables. To savages, 

 indeed, and sailors on a long voyage, every 

 thing that has life seems good to be eaten ; 



and we often find them recommending those 

 animals as dainties, which they themselves 

 would spurn at after a course of good living. 

 Nothing is more common in their journals 



than such accounts as these " This d<iy we 



shot a fox pretty good eating: this day we 

 shot a heron pretty good eating : and this 



day we killed a turtle" which they rai.k 



with the heron and the fox, as " pretty good 

 eating." Their accounts, therefore, of the 

 flesh of these birds, are not to be depended 

 upon ; and when they cry up the heron 

 or the stork of other countries as luxuri- 

 ous food, we must always attend to the 

 state of their appetites who give the charao 

 ter. 



In treating of this ? lass of birds, it will be 

 best to observe the simplest method possible ; 

 neither to load the memory with numerous 

 distinctions, nor yet confuse the imagination 

 by a total want of arrangement. 1 will there- 

 fore describe some of the larger sorts sepa- 

 rately ; as, in a history of birds, each of these 

 demands peculiar distinction. The crane, the 

 stork, the Balearic crane, the heron, the bit- 

 tern, with some others, may require a separate 

 history. Some particular tribes may next 

 oflfer, that may very naturally be classed to- 

 gether ; and as for all the smaller and least 

 remarkable sorts, they may be grouped into 

 one general description. 



CHAPTER CX1II. 



THE CRANE. 



THERE is something extraordinary in the 

 different accounts we have of this bird's size 

 and dimensions. Willoughby and Pennant 

 make the crane from five to six feet long, from 

 the tip to the tail. Other accounts say, that 

 it is above five feet high ; and others, that it 

 is as tall as a man. From the many which I 

 myself had seen, I own this imputed magni- 

 tude surprised me ; as, from memory I was 

 convinced, they could be neither so long nor 

 so tall. Indeed, a bird, the body of which is 

 not larger than that of a turkey-hen, and ac- 

 knowledged on all hands not to weigh above 



ten pounds, cannot easily be supposed to be 

 almost as long as an ostrich. Brisson, how- 

 ever, seems to "five this bird its real dimensions, 

 when he describes it as something less than 

 the brown stork, about three feet high, and 

 about four from the tip to the tail. Still, how- 

 ever, the numerous testimonies of its superior 

 size are not to be totally rejected ; and, per- 

 haps, that from which Brisson took his dimen- 

 sions, was one of the smallest uf the kind. 



The crane, taking its dimensions from him, 

 is exactly three feet four inches from the tip to 

 the tail, and four feet from the head to the toe. 



