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numbers, especially in the Punjab and North-west Provinces." Major Irby writes that "large 

 flocks appear during the cold season, and are chiefly found near the rivers Choka and Kurnalli, 

 feeding on the rice-stubbles. This and Anthropoides virgo are much prized by European sports- 

 men under the name of ' Courlan.' " And Dr. Leith Adams records it as " very abundant during 

 the cold months on the rivers of the Punjab. They migrate evidently from the west, and return 

 again before the commencement of the hot weather. The numbers that frequent the banks of 

 the Jhelum below the city of that name and the confluence with the Chenab, are almost beyond 

 conception ; they commit grave havoc in the wheatfields. They are shy and difficult of approach." 

 In America this species of Crane does not occur, being there replaced by two allied species — 

 Grus canadensis and Grits fraterculus. 



The Crane is one of the most wary and watchful birds ; and I have spent hours in trying to 

 stalk tbem without success. There is an old saying amongst the peasantry of the high north, 

 that the Crane when standing on sentry, as one of a flock generally does, stands on one leg and 

 in the other holds a stone, so that, in case it should nap off, the falling stone would immediately 

 awaken it. The crest of the Cranstouns is, as stated by Sir Walter Scott in the ' Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel,' a Crane standing in this position, and may have reference to the above-referred- 

 to tale ; and if so it clearly typifies the extreme watchfulness so necessary to the Borderer in 

 the old troublous times, when on the Border every man had to be prepared for warfare at 

 any moment. When on migration they fly in flocks, arranged in lines or triangles ; and it is 

 astonishing at how great a distance their clear loud cry can be heard. They often travel by 

 night, especially when migrating northward ; and when in Finland and Scandinavia I have when 

 awake often heard them passing overhead in the middle of the night. They generally, it seems, 

 fly at a considerable altitude, and in a very steady, sedate manner, from time to time uttering 

 their loud trumpet-like cry. When taken young they become very tame ; and I have on several 

 occasions, in the villages in Finland, seen tame Cranes, which appeared to belong to no one in 

 particular, but visited any hut where they were well treated. Dr. Sundstrom sends me an 

 extract from the Swedish sporting magazine, ' Svenska Jagareforbundets gamla Tidskrift,' pub- 

 lished in 1833, which translated reads as follows: — "Some years ago two young Cranes, a male 

 and a female, were caught on the large moor near the celebrated springs of Porla, in Nerike, 

 where the Crane annually breeds. They were taken to the farmhouse at Wissbo to be brought 

 up, and were at first quite a nuisance, as they kept up a continual piping sound ; but as they 

 grew up they left off this bad habit. The male was killed by a kick from a bull he attacked ; 

 but the female grew up with the chickens and ducks as companions, and kept these latter in good 

 order, especially at meal-times ; for if they came too close and interfered with her, she would put 

 her beak and head under them and throw them high up into the air. She would wait at the 

 kitchen-door at meal-times for the boys who came out with a piece of bread and butter in their 

 hands, and, catching at their bright buttons, would often get them to drop the bread and butter, 

 which she immediately snatched up, and would swallow in such large pieces that they could often 

 be seen working down her throat. She often tried to get into the kitchen and rooms, but was 

 always turned out, her habits not being exactly as cleanly as they might be under the circum- 

 stances. Dogs she soon put to flight ; and the cats were wise enough to give her a very wide berth. 

 She would frighten children and mischievous boys by raising herself to her full height, stepping 



