GRUS CINEREA. 



(Common Crane.) 



The Hon. Robert Curzon, in his 'Armenia,' p. 145, says: — "Of the great 

 cinereous Crane, which runs faster than a horse, I shot one at full gallop with 

 a rifle. My game was about 5 feet high. A man brought a Crane which 

 he had winged into the poultry-yard, where he stalked up and down with 

 a proud indignant air. He soon eat his corn with the rest, while he had 

 a deep bucket of water for his own use, into which he used to poke his head 

 continually. One day a servant, not knowing the bucket was placed for the 

 Stork, took it up, when the bird flew at him, and seized him tightly by the 

 nose, and there he held him a good while. He tried to hit his enemy wdth 

 the bucket, but, owing to its long neck, the Crane could not be reached. 

 The man's nose was sore and swelled for a long time." One of the Gulls 

 kept in my garden also took hold of a man by the nose. 



" ' The Three Cranes ' was formerly a favourite London sign. With 

 the usual jocularity of our forefathers, an opportunity for punning could 

 not be passed ; so, instead of the three Cranes, which in the Vintry used 

 to lift the barrels of wine, three birds were represented." — History of 

 Sign-hoards. 



The beautiful illustration of the nest of the Cranes in West Bohemia, 

 ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' pi. E, is well known, and the account of it, ' Ibis,' 

 1859 (vol. i. pp. 191-198). 



