CHAPTER VIII 



Cranes, Rails, and Bustards 

 ORDER— GRUIFORME S 



CRANES, Rails, and Bustards, though very dif- 

 ferent in external appearance, are really 

 closely related. Cranes and Rails are marsh 

 birds, while Bustards frequent sandy wastes; Cranes 

 are wading birds, but Rails swim and dive with ease. 

 All are vegetable feeders, and the diet of Cranes and 

 Rails is varied by insects and molluscs, such as snails, 

 slugs, and worms, and Bustards also eat small mam- 

 mals, such as mice, and reptiles. 



The Common European Crane is a large and very 

 beautiful bird, measuring about four feet in length. 

 In Cranes the windpipe, instead of running straight 

 down the neck to the lungs, passes first into a large 

 chamber in the keel of the breast-bone. After form- 

 ing a coil or loop there, it emerges and passes back- 

 wards to the lungs. By the increase in length thus 

 gained, an extremely loud and resonant voice is pro- 

 duced. See Plate 29, Fig. 161. 



These birds have long legs and long necks, and are 

 not unlike Herons in general appearance, although 

 the form of the head, as" well as the colouration, differs 

 in different species. But three out of the fifteen or 

 more existing species of Cranes are found in America. 



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