190 



this bird was sufficiently common in Cambridgeshire and 

 Lincolnshire for the king to capture . as many as seven and 

 nine in one day with gerfalcons" 



Turner, in his Avium Historia, 1544, states that he had 

 often seen the young ones in locis palustribus earum 

 pipiones scepissime vidi. Leslie also in 1578, wrote of this 

 bird as being common (Grues plurimce) in Scotland (De 

 origine moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum, p. 25) (' Handbook 

 of Brit. Birds/ 1901, pp. 155, 156.) 



" It has been believed " writes Mr. Ussher, " that the 

 Crane was common in Ireland in the twelfth century, from 

 the statement by Giraldus de Barri (Cambrensis) that a 

 hundred of these birds (Grues) might then be seen in a flock, 

 and his chapter on the Crane in the British Museum MS. 

 is illustrated with an unmistakable coloured figure ; Higden 

 also, in the fourteenth century, stated that Ireland abounded 

 in Eagles, Cranes, Peacocks (Capercaillies?), Quails, Hawkes, 

 and Falcons. We cannot, however, be sure that these 

 ancient writers did not confound the Heron with the Crane, 

 as is done at the present day ; " Crane " being the name by 

 which the Heron is generally known in Ireland." During 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Cranes visited the 

 British Isles regularly in winter, but for over a hundred 

 years this species has ceased to be enumerated among our 

 annual winter-migrants. 



The Crane is a very striking-looking figure : it is the 

 largest of wading-birds, standing upwards of four feet high. 



Flight. Watching the bird stalking about in a slow and 

 dignified manner one would hardly credit it with the power 

 of taking immense flights. But to quote Prof. Newton's 

 words, "The Crane's aerial journeys are of a very extended 

 kind ; and on its way from beyond the borders of the Tropic 

 of Cancer to within the Arctic Circle, or on the return- 

 voyage, its flocks may be described passing overhead at a 

 marvellous height, or halting for rest and refreshment on the 

 wide meadows that border some great river, while the seeming 

 order with which its ranks are marshalled during flight has 

 long attracted attention " (Diet. Birds, p. 110). 



Voice. Unlike the Storks, the Crane is capable of pro- 

 ducing a remarkably full-toned trumpet-like blast. This 

 is uttered both when the bird is flying and on the ground. 

 I have frequently heard it from birds in captivity in early 

 spring, and have noted that the mouth is kept open during 

 the vibrations caused by several successive notes. 



