65 



CRANE. 



COMMON CRAJTE. 



Grus cinerea, FLEMING. SRLBY. 



Ardea grus. PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Crane. Cinerea Ash-coloured. 



* THE great numbers of these birds said in old chronicles and 

 records to have been formerly served up at the table, inclines 

 me to think that as the Heron is even now continually called 

 a Crane, so it -may have been often in reality the species thus 

 spoken of; any of the Heron tribe being indiscriminately 

 classed as a Crane. No doubt, however, it was formerly much 

 more numerous than of late; and now it is indeed a very 

 rare and casual visitor. 



The Crane pertains to Russia and Siberia, Lapland, Sweden, 

 Finland, and Norway; Mecklenberg, Thuringia, Turkey, Greece, 

 Pomerania, Poland, Prussia, and is found in Holland occa- 

 sionally in hard winters; and at the 'certain seasons' of 

 migration, Mr. Gould says that flocks of these great birds 

 aue to be seen in France and Germany, travelling northwards 

 or southwards as the case may be, high in the air, and 

 marshalled for 'the route' which has been given them. Their 

 clear sonorous voices aloft resound below, and direct the eye 

 to them. Sometimes they are tempted to descend to feed in 

 newly-sown fields, or marshes, or on the borders of rivers, or 

 the shores of the sea; but generally they are diverted by no 

 attraction from their one main object, but steadily wing 

 their way to the distant country which they have in view, 

 although they cannot see it, and to which they are directed 

 by the GREAT KLCTG. 



VOL. V. F 



