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(graceful. Our English sailors, however, who have not entered 

 so deeply into the dancing art, think, thut while thus in motion, 

 the bird cuts but a very ridiculous figure. It stoops, rises, lifts one 

 wing, then another, turns round, sails forward, then back again ; 

 all which highly diverts our seamen ; not imagining, perhaps, 

 that all these contortions are but the awkward expression, not 

 of the poor animal's pleasures, but its fears.* 



It is a very scarce bird ; the plumage is of a leaden gray ; but 

 it is distinguished by fine white feathers, consisting of long 

 fibres, which fall from the back of the head, about four inches 

 long ; while the fore-part of the neck is adorned with black 

 feathers, composed of very fine, soft, and long fibres, that hang 

 down upon the stomach, and give the bird a very graceful ap- 

 pearance. The ancients have described a buffoon bird ; but there 

 are many reasons to believe that theirs is not the Numidian 

 crane. It comes from that country from whence it has taken 

 its name. 



• The Demoiselle Heron, Ardea Virgo, Grus Virgo, Demoiselle de 

 Kumidie, Sec, owes its name to its elegant gait, tlie oruamental plumes of 

 its head, and certain mimic gestures which it makes, — inclining its liead, 

 walking with a kind of ostentatious air, and leaping and bounding as if it 

 were about to dance. All these peculiarities of the demoiselle of Numidia 

 are mentioned by many ancient writers j and Xenoplion in Athenaeus 

 speaks of a stratagem by which these birds might be caught, which consisted 

 in rubbing one's self with water in their presence, and then filling the vessel 

 with glue bef(ire going away. Notwithstanding this, the acquaintance of 

 the moderns with this species is comparatively of but recent date. They at 

 first confounded it with the Scops and Otus of the Greeks, Asia of the 

 Latins, in consequence of the gestures which that owl makes with its head, 

 and by mistaking its ears for the tuft of slender threads which covers those 

 of the demoiselle. M. de Savigny, in his observations on the system of the 

 birds of Egypt and Syria, demonstrates, with much acumen, that the bird in 

 question Iiere is the Crex of the Greeks ; and he also mentions that it is the 

 Bibio, or Grus Balearina, and Grus Minor, of the Latins, though ornitholo- 

 gists place these denominations in the synonymy of the preceding species. 



These birds are lound in various parts of Africa and Asia, in the interior of 

 the countries of tht Cape of Good Hope, but more particuliu-ly in the ancient 

 Numidia ; and they are observed to arrive in Egypt at the epoch of the in- 

 undation of the Nile. Some are also found on the southern coasts of the 

 Black Sea, and the Caspian ; but it is invariably marshy places which they 

 frequent. They feed indifferently on grains, insects, worms, shell-nioUusca, 

 and even small fishes, which they catch with great dexterity. Their cry 

 resembles the clamoious tones of the crane, but is much more feeble, and 

 fihiirper. 



