66 CRANE. 



At these times they are also observed at Corfu, and other 

 islands of the Mediterranean. Cranes also occur in Africa 

 namely in Egypt, and other parts even at the Cape of 

 Good Hope; and in Asia in Asia Minor, in the regions 

 between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in Arabia, 

 Syria, Persia, China, Hindostan, and in Japan. 



In Cambridgeshire one was obtained, according to Pennant, 

 in the year 1773; and Ray mentions that in his time large 

 flocks of these birds visited the fens during the winter 

 months. Aldrovandus speaks of their having formerly bred 

 in that county, and Willughby also corroborates the fact. 

 Now, however, they are no longer seen, and need no longer 

 be looked for there; the Fens are no longer fens, and -any 

 unfortunate Crane who should visit the haunts of his ances- 

 tors, would find himself sadly 'out of his element,' and that 

 'with a vengeance' from some ruthless gunner. How the 

 birds must execrate the memory of the man that invented 

 gunpowder, and thus superseded the, to them, comparatively 

 harmless use of the bow and arrow! In Norfolk, one, a 

 female, was shot at Kirkley, near Lowestoft, in the month 

 of April, 1845; they were formerly, says Sir Thomas Browne, 

 often seen in that district in hard winters. One was shot at 

 Pevensey, in Sussex, in May, 1849. In the same year, about 

 the end of December, one, apparently a young bird, in Norfolk, 

 at Martham. In Devonshire, one was obtained in September, 

 1826, in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, near Plymouth. 

 In Oxfordshire, one in December, 1830, and another, it is 

 said at Chimneyford, on the Isis, in December, 1831. 



Sir Robert Sibbald mentions the occurrence of the Crane in 

 Orkney; and Sir William Jardine, Bart., says that it has 

 occurred there recently. Dr. Fleming states that a small 

 flock was seen in Tingwall in the autumn of 1807. Mr. 

 Dunn also mentions two having been shot in Zetland in 

 1831 and 1832; and a small flock had previously been seen 

 there, one of which was shot, in the autumn of 1807. 



In Ireland it was met with during the great frost in 1739. 



They migrate both by day and night, in the spring and 

 autumn, halting to rest, for the most part, in the middle of 

 the day. The autumnal migration takes place between the 

 12th. and the 20th. of October, and the same line of flight 

 appears to be closely kept each successive year. The spring 

 migration to their building-grounds takes place from the 

 middle of March or the middle of April according to the 



