68 Monograph of the Cranes. 



subdued hacking of wood and the oraukling of Ludwig'a fire. It was already about 

 midnight ; Fieldfares were chasing each other through the wood ; one came pecking 

 about my feet, and another, settling on the branches that covered my back, almost 

 made my ears ache with the loudness of its cries. I often heard the waft of known 

 wings, but three times there sounded overhead the sweeping wave of great wings to 

 which my ears were unaccustomed. I could scarcely doubt it was the Cranes, but I 

 dare not turn up my eye ; I even once or twice heard a slight chuckle that must have 

 been from them. At length, as I had my glass in the direction of the nest, which was 

 three or four hundred yards off, I saw a tall grey figure emerging from amongst the 

 birch trees, just beyond where I knew the neat must be ; and there stood the Crane in 

 all the beauty of nature, in the full side light of an Arctic summer night. She came on 

 with her graceful walk, her head up, and she raised it a little higher and turned her 

 beak sideways and upwards as she passed round the tree on whose trunk I had hung 

 the little roll of bark. I had not anticipated that she would observe so ordinary an 

 object. She probably saw that her eggs were safe, and then she took a beat of twenty 

 or thirty yards in the swamp, pecking and apparently feeding. At the end of this beat 

 dhe stood still for a quarter of an hour, sometimes pecking and sometimes motionless, 

 but showing no symptoms of suspicion of my whei'eabouts, and indeed no manifest sign 

 of fear. At length she turned back and passed her nest a few paces in the opposite 

 direction, but soon came in to it ; she arranged with her beak the materials of the nest, 

 or the eggs, or both ; she dropped her breast gently forward, and, as soon as it touched, 

 she let the rest of her body sink gradually down. And so she sits, with her neck up 

 and her body full in my sight, sometimes preening her feathers, especially of the neck, 

 sometimes lazily pecking about, and for a long time she sits, with her neck curved 

 like a swan's, though principally at its upper part. Now she turns her head backwards, 

 puts her beak under the wing, apparently just in the middle of the ridge of the back, 

 and so she seems fairly to go to sleep. While she sits, as generally while she walks, her 

 plumes are compressed and inconspicuous. 



By this time all birds, excepting perhaps a Fieldfare, are silent. I was now sure the 

 Crane would not carry oflF her eggs. After enjoying for a short time longer this sight — 

 and no epithet is yet in use which expresses the nature of the feelings created by such 

 scenes in the minds of those who fully enjoy them — I found that the air was freezing. 

 I quietly got up, and on reaching the fire made myself comfortable. Some four hours 

 later, that is between four and five in the morning, we came again to the west side of 

 the hill ; there lay the crane, head and neck still invisible ; we may have whispered too 

 loud, for she soon raised her head. I now wished to see how she would leave the nest, 

 whether crouohingly or not. I took a line not directly towards it, curving more upon 

 it as I advanced, of course taking care to keep my eyes in a different direction. When 

 I believed that I was just opposite, I looked, as I thought, towards the place, which 

 might be about twenty paces off, but I did not at first recognise the bird. She was 

 a few feet from the exact spot I had expected, and I unconsciously took her for a grey 

 stone, till my eyes turned directly on her. I had then just time to mark her position 

 with her head drawn in between her shoulders, when, having caught my glance, she 

 rose steadily into the air. In one part of the nest was a damp spot, from the water of 

 the marsh having soaked through. The eggs now lay touching each other. When I 

 came to blow them, I found to my surprise that they were one or two days sat upon. 

 In 1855 this nest, Ludwie: informed me, was robbed by a Fielfras (Qulo borealis). I 

 had the pleasure of showing it, towards the end of the summer of the same year, to my 

 friend Mr. Alfred Newton^ who thought the difficulties of the bog fully repaid by the 

 sight even of an empty Crane's nest. We found on this occasion, on examining the 

 materials of the nest, old pieces of egg-shell, showing that it was the same nest that 

 had been used in previous years. 



I must not go into long particulars concerning the nest of 1854 in Eharto uoma. I 



