162 A HISTORY OF 



distinctions, nor yet confuse the imagination by a total want of ar- 

 rangement, i will therefore describe some of the largest sorts sepa- 

 rately ; as in a history of birds, each of these demands peculiar dis- 

 tinction. The crane, the stork, the Balearic crane, the heron, the* 

 bittern, with some others, may require a separate history. Some par- 

 ticular tribes may next offer, that may very naturally be classed toge- 

 ther ; and as for all the smaller and least remarkable sorts, they may 

 be grouped into one general description. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CRANE. 



THERE is something extraordinary in the different accounts we 

 nave 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 magnitude surprised me ; as from memory I was con- 

 vinced, they could neither be 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 ea 

 sily be supposed to be almost as long as an ostrich. Brisson, how 

 ever, seems to give this bird its real dimensions, when he describe? 

 it as something less than the brown stork, about three feet high, and 

 about four from the tip to the tail. Still, however, the numerous testi 

 monies of its superior size are not to be totally rejected ; and perhaps ; 

 that from which Brisson took his dimensions, was one of the small- 

 est of the kind. 



The crane, taking its dimensions from him, is exactly three feel 

 four inches from the tip 10 the tail, and four feet from the head to the 

 toe. It is a tall slender bird, with a long neck and long legs. The 

 top of the head is covered with black bristles, and the back of it is 

 bald and red, which sufficiently distinguishes this bird from the stork 

 to -which it is very nearly allied in size and figure. The plumage, in 

 general, is ash-coloured ; and there are two large tufts of feathers 

 that spring from the pinion of each wing. These bear a resemblance 

 to hair, and are finely curled at the ends, which the bird has a power 

 of erecting and depressing at pleasure. Gesner says, that these fea- 

 thers, in his time, used to be set in gold, and worn as ornaments in 

 caps. 



Such are the dimensions of a bird, concerning which, not to men 

 lion modern times, there have been more fables propagated than of 

 any other. It is a bird with which all the ancient writers are fami- 

 liar; and, in describing it, they have not failed to mix imagination 

 with history. From the policy of the cranes they say, we are to look 



