STATUS OF THE CRANE 169 
day, merely a rare and occasional migrant driven to the 
British Isles by accidental circumstances. This is the only 
character which Thomas Pennant is able to give it in his 
“ British Zoology,” in 1768.* Here the Crane is included in 
the appendix, with the comment that the inhabitants of 
Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire appeared to be scarcely 
acquainted with it. ‘‘ We therefore conclude,” adds Pennant, 
“that these birds have forsaken our island.” 
Albin, perhaps less well informed than Pennant, considered 
it more common,y but in 1787 John Latham, while referring 
to its ancient abundance, had only three modern occurrences 
to give his readers, all evidently migrants. t 
Going back to the sixteenth century there are a good 
many scattered records to be dealt with, forming enough 
materials to build up quite a tolerable history of this bird. The 
first mention to hand is in 1502, when twelve pence was paid 
on October 6th, as appears from the ‘“‘ Privy Purse Expenses 
of Elizabeth of York” (p. 51), to a servant for bringing the 
Queen a Crane. Presumably it was for eating; other items 
are for “an hert,” ‘‘ woodcokkes,” ‘‘a present of byrdes,”’ 
and some “‘ quayles,” all of which were for the table. 
The next allusion to be cited is one in 1512, contained in the 
Regulations of the Household of the Earl of Northumber- 
land, where, as was to be expected, the Crane is set down as 
being a proper and obtainable viand, but by implication a 
winter one :— 
“Cranys must be hadde at Cristymas ande outher 
Principall Feists. . . .” 
Attention has already been drawn to the references 
to Cranes in the Norfolk Accounts of le Straunge, where we 
have no less than twenty-eight entries, all of them with one 
exception in the autumn and winter (swpra, p. 130). The 
Crane is named three times in the Middleton (Notts.) 
Accounts. Here two of the entries are particularly note- 
worthy, because they have reference to captures in the spring, 
the first time being in April, 1522, and the second in June, 1523, 
* 8vo ed., Vol. IL., p. 629. 
+ ‘‘ Natural History of Birds,’’ LI., p. 60. 
+ “ General Synopsis of Birds,’’ Suppl., p. 298. 
