OMNIVOROUS BIRDS AND PROTOCHORDATES 



241 



171) are often confounded with storks, and like them are com- 

 monly found in marshy districts. The Common Crane {Grti,s 

 communis) bred in East Anglia up to the end of the sixteenth 

 century, and has at the present time a wide range in Europe and 

 North Asia, migrating during the winter as far south as India 



Fig. 459, — Crowned Crane [Balcarica pavonind) 



and North Africa. The Crowned Cranes (fig. 459) of Africa are 

 similar in habits. Trumpeters constitute a small group of South 

 American birds which have been compared in appearance to 

 fowls with long necks and legs, and are found in humid forest 

 regions. Bustards are stoutly-built Old World species, of which 

 the Great Bustard {Otis tarda) is of special interest, because it 

 was a native of Britain till about 1838. These birds prefer dry 

 plains and cultivated land. A. H. Evans states (in The Cambridge 

 Natural History) that "the diet consists chiefly of juicy plants, 



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VOL. II. 



