573 BEITISH BIRDS. 



line with the neck and bill, instead of a slight curve. It must not, how- 

 ever, be supposed that the Crane is a near relation of the Stork or the 

 Heron j on the contrary, it has scarcely a character in common with these 

 birds except its long legs and large size. The Crane might be regarded as 

 a gigantic long-legged Rail, as a Water-Bustard, or as a huge form of 

 Stilt-Plover ; but from the Herons and Storks it differs in almost every 

 important respect — in the modification of the bones of its palate, in its 

 richly spotted eggs, in the fact that the young can run as soon as hatched, 

 and in various other characters. 



Unlike the Herons and the Storks, the Crane has a loud and not un- 

 musical voice, which can be heard at an immense distance. The keel of 

 its sternum is hollow, and the windpipe is convoluted between the plates 

 on each side ; and from this long pipe, as from a trombone, proceed loud, 

 clear, trumpet-like notes, so rapidly trilled as almost to split the ear with 

 their vibrations. These notes can be variously modulated to express the 

 different feelings of the bird. 



The Crane feeds more on vegetable than on animal food. It eats all 

 sorts of corn, seeds, buckwheat, peas, the tender shoots of aquatic plants, 

 and even grass ; but it often devours worms, insects of various kinds, and 

 even lizards and small frogs, but it is not known to eat fish. 



Many Cranes winter in South Europe, but the migrating parties which 

 cross the Mediterranean are conspicuous enough. They cross the Straits of 

 Gibraltar as early as February ; but in the east they are somewhat later, 

 arriving at Smyrna early in March. They reach Central Germany late 

 in March or early in April, according to the season, but they do not 

 arrive in Lapland until May, The return migration takes place during 

 October. 



The Crane is an early breeder. In Spain the first eggs are laid about 

 the last week of April, and in Bulgaria not more than a week later. In 

 Germany its eggs are laid late in April or early in May, but in Lapland not 

 until the end of the latter month. In Pomerania the nest of the Crane is 

 generally built on one of the hummocks in the swamps. It is a very slight 

 structure : the top of the hummock is trampled down, and the sedge, part 

 of it fresh new foliage and part last year's dead leaves, is twisted round into 

 an apology for a nest. 



The earliest authentic information respecting the breeding of the Crane 

 which reached English ornithologists was the graphic account which 

 WoUey published in the first volume of the ' Ibis ' of his discovery of its ' 

 nest and eggs in Lapland, thirty years ago. It is impossible to over- 

 estimate the interest of this narrative ; but in justice to continental orni- 

 thologists it must be remembered that the Germans had been familiar with 

 all the details of the breeding of this interesting bird for many years before 

 then, and thought no more of taking a Crane's nest than we do of finding 



