;<H A HISTORY OF 



much preparation to make it palatable ; and even after every art, it fa 

 tit only for the stomachs of strong and labouring people. 



The cold Arctic region seems to be this bird's favourite abode. They 

 come down into the more southern parts of Europe, rather as visitants 

 than inhabitants : yet it is not well known in what manner they portion 

 out their time, to the different parts of the world. The migrations ol 

 the fieldfare or thrush, are obvious, and well known ; they go northward 

 or southward, in one simple track ; when their food fails them here, 

 they have but one region to go to. But it is otherwise with the crane ; 

 he changes place, like a wanderer ; he spends the autumn in Europe ; 

 he then flies off", probably to some more southern climate, to enjoy a 

 part of the winter ; returns to Europe in the spring ; crosses up to 

 the north in summer ; visits those lakes that are never dry ; and then 

 comes down again to make depredations upon our cultivated grounds, 

 in autumn. Thus Gesner assures us, that the cranes usually begin to 

 quit Germany, from about the eleventh of September to the seventeenth 

 of October; from thence they were seen flying southward by thousands ; 

 and Redi tells us they arrive in Tuscany a short time after. There 

 they tear up the fields, newly sown, for the grain just committed to the 

 ground, and do great mischief. It is supposed, that, in the severity of 

 winter, they go southward, still nearer the line. They again appear in 

 the fields of Pisa, regularly about the twentieth of February, to antici- 

 pate the spring. 



In these jous ayrne, its imazing to conceive the heights to which 

 they ascend, when they fly. Their note is the loudest of all other birds ; 

 and that is often heard in the clouds, when the bird itself is entirely 

 unseen. As it is light for its size, and spreads a large expanse of wing, 

 it is capable of floating at the greatest height, where the air is lightest; 

 and as it secures its safety, and is entirely out of the reach of man, ii 

 flies in tracts which would be too fatiguing for any other birds to move 

 forward in. 



In these aerial journeys, though unseen themselves, they have the 

 distinctest vision of every object below. They govern and direct theii 

 flight by their cries ; and exhort each other to proceed or to descend, 

 when a fit opportunity offers for depredation. Their voice, it was ob- 

 served, is the loudest of all the feathered tribe ; and its peculiar clan- 

 gor arises from the very extraordinary length and contortion of the wind- 

 pipe. In quadrupeds the windpipe is short, and the glottis, or cartilages 

 that form the voice, are at that end of it which is next the mouth ; in water- 

 fowl, the wind. pipe is longer, but the cartilages that form the voice are at 

 the other end, which lies down in their belly. By this means they have 

 much louder voices, in proportion to their size, than any other animals 

 whatever ; for the note when formed below, is reverberated through all 

 the rings of the windpipe, till it reaches the air But the vohe of the duck 

 or the goose is nothing to be compared to that of the c-ane, whose wind- 

 pipe is not only made in the same manner with theirs, but is above twenty 

 times as long. Nature seems to have bestowed much pains in lengthening 

 out this organ. From the outside it enters through the flesh into the breast- 

 bone, which hath a great cavity within to receive it. There, being 

 fnrice reCacted, it goes out again at the same hole, and so turns down 



