310 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF THE BALEARIC AND OTHER FOREIGN CRANES. 



HAVING ended the last chapter with doubts con- 

 cerning the ibis, we shall begin this with doubts 

 concerning the Balearic Crane. Pliny has de- 

 scribed a bird of the crane kind with a topping 

 resembling that of the green woodpecker. This 

 bird for a long time continued unknown, till we 

 became acquainted with birds of the tropical cli- 

 mates, when one of the crane kind, with a top- 

 ping, was brought into Europe, and described by 

 Aldrovandus as Pliny's Balearic Crane. Hence 

 these birds, which have since been brought from 

 Africa and the East in numbers, have received 

 the name of Balearic Cranes, but without any 

 just foundation. The real Balearic Crane of 

 Pliny seems to be the lesser ash-coloured heron, 

 with a topping of narrow white feathers, or per- 

 haps the egret, with two long feathers that fall 

 back from the sides of the head. The bird that 

 we are about to describe under the name of the 

 Balearic Crane was unknown to the ancients; 

 and the heron or egret ought to be reinstated in 

 their just title to that name. 



When we see a very extraordinary animal, we 

 are naturally led to suppose, that there must be 

 something also remarkable in its history to cor- 

 respond with the singularity of its figure. But it 

 often happens that history fails on those occasions 



