224 The Birds of Virgil. 



and discretion, Virgil has told us more of animal 

 life than in all the rest of his poems, we find 

 frequent mention of the long-legged and long- 

 billed birds with which he must have been very 

 familiar in his boyhood at Mantua. The first of 

 these we meet with is the Crane (Latin grus). 

 About the meaning of the word grus there can 

 be no doubt ; it would seem that the Crane was a 

 bird accurately distinguished by the forefathers 

 of our modern Aryan peoples even before they 

 separated from each other. The Greek word 

 yspavos, the Latin grus, the German Kranich, and 

 the Welsh garan are all identical, and point to a 

 period when the bird was known by the same 

 name to the whole race. Probably it was much 

 more abundant both in Europe and Asia, at a 

 time when the face of the country was covered 

 by vast tracts of swamp and forest. Even now, 

 at the period of migration, they swarm in the 

 East ; " the whooping and trumpeting of the crane," 

 says a great authority (Canon Tristram), " rings 

 through the night air in spring, and the vast flocks 

 we noticed passing north near Beersheba were a 

 wonderful sight." 



