304 . HISTORY OF 



Corn is their favourite food ; but there is 

 scarcely any other that comes amiss to them. 

 Redi, who opened several, found the stomach of 

 one full of the herb called dandelion ; that of ano- 

 ther was filled with beans ; a third had a great 

 quantity of clover in its stomach j while that of 

 two others was filled with earth-worms and beetles : 

 in some he found lizards and sea fish ; in others, 

 snails, grass, and pebbles, swallowed, perhaps, for 

 medical purposes. It seems, therefore, that these 

 birds are easily supplied, and that they are noxi- 

 ous to corn fields but on some particular oc- 

 casions. 



In general it is a peaceful bird, both in its own 

 society, and with respect to those of the forest. 

 Though so large in appearance, a little falcon 

 pursues, and often disables it. The method is, 

 with those who are fond of hawking, to fly seve- 

 ral hawks together against it, which the crane 

 endeavours to avoid, by flying up perpendicular- 

 ly, till the air becomes too thin to support it any 

 higher. The hawk, however, still bears it com- 

 pany ; and though less fitted for floating in so thin 

 a medium, yet, possessed of greater rapidity, it 

 still gains the ascendency. They both often rise 

 out of sight ; but soon the spectator, who keeps 

 his eye fixed above, perceives them, like two 

 specks, beginning to appear : they gather on his 

 eye for a little space, and shortly after come 

 tumbling perpendicularly together, with great 

 animosity on the side of the hawk, and a loud 

 screaming on that of the crane. Thus driven to 

 extremity, and* unable to fly, the poor animal 



