44 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



Family— GR UID^. 



ORDER ALECTORIDES. 



The Crane. 



Grus covimiinis, BechsT. 



THE Cranes, in consequence of the similarity of their external appearance, 

 were formerly associated with Herons, from which, however, they are 

 remarkably distinct, not only in internal structure, but in habits. The Herons 

 are carnivorous, the Cranes, on the contrary, feed mainly on vegetable substances. 

 This mistake is strongly illustrated in Raphael's cartoon of the " Miraculous 

 Draught of Fishes," where the artist introduces Cranes in place of Storks as 

 waiting for the spoil of the fishermen. Many of the Cranes are exceedingly 

 destructive to com crops, and Mr. Howard Saunders informs us that the common 

 Crane, in Spain, is so partial to acorns that it interferes with the fattening of the 

 pigs in the forests, and is consequently persecuted by the proprietors. The various 

 species are widely distributed over the globe, many being migratory. They 

 frequent open spaces, where they are so wary that it is difi&cult to get within 

 gun-shot of them. On the wing they fly well and swiftly, and take long migratory 

 journeys. 



The so-called Common Crane was formerly well known in Kngland, and, as 

 shown by Mr. Harting, in an interesting article on " Cranes at Christmas," was 

 formerly regarded as being as indispensable to a first-rate dinner at that period 

 as the Turkey is at the present. At that time it was obtained usually by hawking 

 at it with Gyrfalcons, and appears in the bills of fare of many of our early 

 monarchs, from William the Conqueror forwards, its abundance being testified by 

 the fact that at one feast in Edward IV time no less than two hundred and four 

 Cranes were served up. Gradually it became much scarcer, and in 1534 an Act 

 of Parliament was passed to protect the eggs of the Crane, Bustard, and other 

 birds under heavy penalties. Willughby, in his " Ornithology," 1678, speaking 

 of Cranes says, they often come to us in England, and in the counties of 

 Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire there are great flocks of them. Now it is 

 doubtful whether the Crane has bred in England since the seventeenth century, 

 and except as an occasional visitor it is no longer to be regarded as an inhabitant 

 of this Island, although Mr. Cordeaux quotes one of the Fen Laws . passed in 



