CRANE. 189 



The Crane having a strong and thick muscular stomach, 

 feeds largely upon grain, fenny seeds and bents ; and in 

 Spain it is very partial to the large sweet acorns, so much 

 so that in the Dehesa de Remonte, in Andalucia, war was 

 declared against the species, owing to its interfering with the 

 fattening of the swine which were fed there. About Swatow, 

 in Southern China, Mr. Swinhoe found that, during their 

 winter sojourn, the Cranes fed chiefly upon the tubers of 

 the sweet potato (Batatas edulis) ; and in the sandy plains 

 of the Punjaub, Mr. Hume has observed these birds boring 

 into the water-melons.* 



Cranes, when taken young, become amusing, albeit some- 

 what dangerous, pets ; and so long ago as 1500, we find in an 

 inventory of Serjeant Keble's goods, dated 6th July of that 

 year, three Cranes valued at five shillings each.f Their 

 peculiar habit of " dancing " is well known, and may be 

 frequently observed in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, 

 although this species appears less addicted to this display 

 than some of its congeners. 



The singular structure of the windpipe and its convolu- 

 tions lodged between the two plates of bone forming the 

 sides of the keel of the sternum in this bird have long been 

 known . The first illustration on the next page is a representa- 

 tion of the breast-bone of a young male Crane, in which the 

 trachea, or windpipe, quitting the neck of the bird, passes 

 downwards and backwards between the branches of the 

 furcula, or merrythought, towards the inferior edge of the 

 keel, which is hollowed out to receive it ; into this groove, 

 formed by the separation of the sides of the keel, the trachea 

 passes, and is firmly bound therein by cellular membrane, 



* On the 27th May, as the Editor was studying the colours of the soft parts in 

 two Cranes, presumably a pair, from Lulea in Finland, presented in 1880 to the 

 Zoological Gardens by Mr. Norman W. Shairp, the darker bird, probably the 

 male, was observed to be stalking a sparrow in the enclosure. The drawn in 

 neck shot out to its fullest extent : there was a snap and a faint squeak ; for a 

 minute or so the sparrow was battered against the ground and then swallowed 

 whole. The other bird got highly excited during this operation, and, after 

 executing a wild dance, made an ineffectual attempt to catch another sparrow as 

 it flew over. 



t ' Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. 38, p. 257. 



