STATUS OF THE CRANE 165 
been very difficult of execution, and more than the fowlers 
of England could supply. For the sixteenth century it is to 
William Turner’s writings that we chiefly look for information 
concerning the Crane, and the same may be said of many other 
species, regarding which this talented man has left invaluable 
notes behind him. Turner has been often quoted on the 
subject of the Crane, and perhaps too much stress has been 
laid on his remarks. What he says is: ‘‘ Cranes, moreover, 
breed in England in marshy places. I myself have very often 
seen their pipers [young ones], though some people born 
away from England urge that this is false.”* He appears 
to have written to Gesner to the same effect,t and the 
passage is copied by Aldrovandus + 
Turner’s expression “‘ very often seen” in the “ Avium 
Praecipuarum . . . historia’ is explicit, and admits of no 
denial. Young Cranes, which soon learn to use their legs, 
may have been caught by countrymen and brought into 
Cambridge. That they were sometimes kept as pets is 
indicated, as Mr. Harting points out in his valuable essay, 
by an inventory of the chattels of Thomas Kebeel§ in 
1500, where three live Cranes are valued at five shillings,|| 
perchance some which had been taken when young in the 
fens. In the same way Turner, in some of his botanical 
rambles, when he was a student, may have come across them. 
Although no one doubts Turner’s word, there is only one 
witness who is able to support it, for Dr. Kay, who could 
have given some confirmation, says nothing. This witness is 
Dr. Thomas Muffett, or Moffet, a learned physician who wrote 
about 1595. In his “‘ Health’s Improvement ’§ Muffett states 
that ‘‘ Cranes breed, as old Dr. Turner wrote to Gesner, not 
only in the northern countries, but also in our English fens.” 
It remains doubtful whether Muffett had any independent 
knowledge on the subject, or whether he was merely quoting 
Turner, whose work he had doubtless seen. 
> 
* Evans's edn., p. 97. 
+ See ‘‘ Historia Animalium.’’ 
+ Liber III., p. 511. 
§ or Kebel. 
|| ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ 1768, p. 259. 
4 For the loan of which I am indebted to Mr. H. 8. Gladstone: for a 
life of Muffett see ‘‘ British Birds,” Mag., V., p. 262. 
