GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 91 



South Europe, Abyssinia, Egypt, Nubia, and Algeria. South of 

 the limits already traced in Europe it breeds in Russia, Turkey, 

 the valley of the Danube, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Andalusia, 

 North Germany, Poland, and the Baltic Provinces. 



Allied Forms. — None with which it is likely to be confused. 



Time during which the Common Crane may be 



taken. — August ist to March ist; otherwise by authority of 

 owner or occupier of land. 



Habits. — It is the British ornithologist's misfortune that the 

 habits of this magnificent bird can be studied no longer in these 

 islands which were once its home. The haunts of the Crane are 

 in extensive swamps, where lakes, and bogs, and rough ground 

 clothed with scrub and heath and rushes abound. Some of 

 these haunts are surrounded by forests, but the Crane shows no 

 partiality for trees, and never appears to alight in them. In my 

 opinion its affinity to the Bustards is manifested in this singular 

 habit. At all times it is an excessively shy bird, detecting danger 

 from afar as it stands in its treeless open wilderness, and unfold- 

 ing its broad wings and soaring away long before harm can reach 

 it. At all times of the year it is more or less gregarious, but 

 becomes most so during winter. To Northern Europe the Crane 

 is a bird of regular passage, and performs its migrations in 

 companies which fly at an enormous height, usually in the shape 

 of a V or W. These flocks appear to migrate by day. Cranes 

 are birds of somewhat early passage, those that have wintered 

 in Africa beginning to return in February and March, reaching 

 their breeding grounds in Central Europe towards the end of 

 that month or early in April, but not arriving in the Arctic 

 regions before May. The return journey is undertaken during 

 October. The flight of this species is powerful and rapid, with 

 slow and regular beat of wing, the long neck extended and the 

 legs held out behind. The bird walks about the ground in a very 

 graceful manner, and wades in the stagnant waters in quest of 

 its food. This consists of a great variety of substances, but 

 mostly of a vegetable character; grain of all kinds, grass, the 

 buds and shoots of aquatic plants, acorns, insects, lizards, frogs, 

 and, according to Hume, small fish. The same authority states 

 that in India its favourite food is the young pods and yellow 



