250 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Falcon, ordinary domestic fowls, and several of the 

 smaller birds common to the country. 



The Crane {Tsuru), according to Ksempfer, is 

 the chief of the wild lairds in Japan, and has the 

 peculiar Imperial privilege that nobody can shoot 

 it without an express order from the Emperor, and 

 only for the Emperor's own pleasure or use. It is 

 held in a sort of semi-veneration by all classes of 

 the community in Japan, and is, on account of its 

 supposed long life, very generally accepted as an 

 emblem of longevity. For these reasons it is one 

 of the greatest favourites with the artists of the 

 country, and is introduced in ornamentation 

 throughout the entire range of their arts. It is 

 treated in countless ways ; it is, indeed, impossible 

 to imagine any position the living bird could 

 assume which is not depicted by the Japanese 

 artist ; and it would be difficult to find anything 

 more artistic, from a decorative point of view, thaa 

 their manner of treating it in these varied positions. 

 A remarkable fact in connection with the Crane is 

 that the Japanese avoid representing it as dead. 

 Messrs Audsley and Bowes, in their beautiful work. 

 The Keramic Art of Japan, state that, during 

 many years' study of Japanese art work, they do 

 not remember to have once seen a representation 

 of a dead Crane. This, they observe, may be 

 satisfactorily accounted for by the symbolic value 

 attached to the bird, for a dead Crane would 

 scarcely be an expressive emblem of longevity. 

 In lacquer work Cranes are very often introduced 

 in the ornamentation, and are exquisitely manipu- 



