The Crane. 225 



Virgil mentions the Crane in two passages as 

 doing damage to the crops : and this is fully borne 

 out by modern accounts from Asia Minor and 

 Scinde, quoted by Mr. Dresser in his Birds of 

 Europe. The poet says of them (Georgic i. 1 18) 



Nee tamen haec cum sint hominumque boumque labores 

 Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser 

 Strymoniaeque grues et amaris intuba fibris 

 Officiunt aut umbra nocet. 1 



And in line 307 of the same book he tells the 

 husbandman that the winter is the time to catch 

 them : 



Turn gruibus pedicas, et retia ponere cervis 

 Auritosque sequi lepores ; 2 



a passage from which it might appear as if the 

 Crane were snared as an article of food, not only 

 as an enemy to the agriculturist. And indeed in 

 Pliny's time the epicure's taste was all in favour 



1 But no whit the more 

 For all expedients tried and travail borne 

 By man and beast in turning oft the soil, 

 Do greedy goose and Strymon-haunting cranes 

 And succory's bitter fibres not molest 

 Or shade not injure 



2 Time it is to set 



Snares for the crane, and meshes for the stag, 

 And hunt the long-eared hares. 



Q 



