172 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



class, in a comparative view, they will seem 

 rather inferior to those of every other tribe. 

 Their nests are more simple than those of the 

 sparrow ; and their methods of obtaining food 

 less ingenious than those of the falcon ; the 

 pie exceeds them in cunning ; and though 

 they have all the voraciousness of the poultry 

 tribe, they want their fecundity. None of 

 this kind, therefore, have been taken into 

 man's society, or under his protection ; they 

 are neither caged, like the nightingale ; nor 

 kept tame, like the turkey ; but lead a life of 

 precarious liberty, in fens and marshes, at the 

 edges of lakes, and along the sea-shore. They 

 all live upon fish or insects, one or two only 

 excepted ; even those that are called mud- 

 suckers, such as the snipe and the woodcock, 

 it is more than probable, grope the bottom of 

 marshy places only for such insects as are de- 

 posited there by their kind, and live in a ver- 

 micular state, in pools and plashes, till they 

 take wing, and become flying insects. 



All this class, therefore, that are fed upon 

 insects, their food being easily digestible, are 

 good to be eaten ; while those who live en- 

 tirely upon fish, abounding in oil, acquire in 

 their flesh the rancidity of their diet, and are, 

 in general, unfit for our tables. To savages, 

 indeed, and sailors on a long voyage, every 

 thing that has life seems good to be eaten ; 

 and we often find them recommending 

 those animals as dainties, which they them- 

 selves would spurn at after a course of good 

 living. Nothing is more common in their 

 journals than such accounts as these 



; ' This day we shot a fox pretty good eating : 

 this day we shot a heron pretty good eating : 



and this day we killed a turtle" which 



they rank with the heron and the fox, as 

 * pretty good eating." Their accounts, there- 

 fore, of the flesh of these birds, are not to be 

 depended upon ; and when they cry up the 

 heron or the stork of other countries as luxuri- 

 ous food, we must always attend to the state 

 of their appetites who give the character. 



In treating of this class of birds, it will be 

 best to observe the simplest method possible ; 

 neither to load the memory with numerous 

 distinctions, nor yet confuse the imagination 

 by a total want of arrangement. I will, 

 therefore, describe some of the larger sorts 

 separately; as, in a history of birds, each of 

 these demands peculiar distinction. The 

 crane, the stork, the Balearic crane, the he- 

 ron, the bittern, with some others, may require 

 a separate history. Some particular tribes 

 may next offer, that may very naturally be 

 classed together ; and as for all the smaller 

 and least remarkable sorts, they may be 

 grouped into one general description. 



CHAP. II. 



THE CKANE. 1 



THERE is something extraordinary in the 

 different accounts we have of this bird's size 

 and dimensions. Willoughby and Pennant 

 make the crane from five to six feet long, from 

 the tip to the tail. Other accounts say that it 

 is above five feet high ; and others, that it is 

 as tall as a man. From the many which I 

 myself had seen, I own this imputed magni- 

 tude surprised me ; as from memory I was 

 convinced they could neither be so long nor 



1 The above Cut represents the Common Crane. 

 For Numidian Crane, see Plate XX. fig. ]. and for 

 Collared Crane, fig. 6. same Plate. The Gigantic 

 Crane, or, as it is called in India, the Adjutant (see 

 Plate XX. fig. 12.) is a very large species, which 

 belongs to the stork genus, measuring, from tip to tip of 

 the wings, nearly fifteen feet. The bill is of vast size, 

 nearly triangular, and sixteen inches round at the base. 

 The legs and half the thighs are naked, and the naked 

 parts are full three feet in length. This bird is an in- 

 habitant of Bengal arid Calcutta, and is sometimes found 

 on the coast of Guinea. It arrives in the internal parts 

 of Bengal before the period of the rains, and retires as 

 soon as the dry season commences. Its aspect is filthy 

 and disgusting ; yet it is one of the most useful birds of 

 these countries, in clearing them of snakes and noxious 

 reptiles and insects. It seems to finish the work began 

 by the jackal and vulture the clearing away the flesh 

 of animals, and these birds removing the bones, and 

 swallowing them entire. They sometimes feed on fish ; 

 and one of them will generally devour as much as would 

 serve four men. On opening the body of a gigantic 

 crane, a land -tortoise, ten inches long, and a large black 

 male cat, were found entire within it ; the former in the 

 craw, and the latter in the stomach. Being altogether 

 undaunted at the sight of mankind, they are soon ren- 

 dered familiar; and when fish or other food are thrown 

 to them, they catch them very nimbly, and immediately 

 swallow them whole. The gigantic cranes are believed 

 by the Indians to be animated by the souls of the Brah- 

 mins, and consequently to be invulnerable. Mr Ives, 

 in attempting to kill some of them with his gun, missed 

 his shot several times, which the by-standers observed 

 with the greatest satisfaction, telling him triumphantly 

 that he might shoot at them as long as he pleased, but 

 he never would be able to kill them. 



