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the house in the evening. One morning it was found dead in its sleeping-place, without any sign 

 of having been injured." 



The Crane breeds in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Northern Germany, Eussia, Northern Asia, 

 and in Western Europe, as before stated, in Spain. Mr. Howard Saunders writes : — " I found 

 it nesting, and have eggs from the marshes of Dohana, and am informed that in some places it 

 nests almost in colonies. It is partial to acorns, and in the Dehesa de Eemonte it interfered so 

 much with the fattening of the pigs which are driven in to feed, that war was declared against 

 the species by the proprietor." 



The Crane breeds on the ground, forming a simple nest, in which are deposited usually two 

 eggs ; but Mr. Meves informs me that he has known instances of three having been found in the 

 same nest. I know of no better account of its nidification than that published by the late 

 Mr. Wolley, in the first volume of ' The Ibis ;' and as that book is now becoming so rare, I do 

 not hesitate to quote this in extenso as follows: — " It was on the 15th June, 1853, that I entered 

 the marsh which the well-known Pastor Leestadius had told me was the most northern limit 

 in Lapland of the breeding of the Crane. It is in Swedish territory, being on the west side of 

 the frontier river, opposite the Finnish (Eussian) village of Yli Muonioniska, in about lat. 68° — 

 that is, some distance within the Arctic Circle. This great marsh, called i Iso noma,' is mostly 

 composed of soft bog, in which, unless where the Bog-bean grows, one generally sinks up to the 

 knees, or even to the middle ; but it is intersected by long strips of firmer bog-earth, slightly 

 raised above the general level, and bearing creeping shrubs, principally of sallow and dwarf 

 birch, mixed in places with Ledum palustre, Vaccinium uliginosum, Andromeda polifolia, Bubus 

 chamcemorus, besides grasses, Varices, mosses, and other plants. There were also a few bushes or 

 treelets of the common birch, and these quite numerous in some parts of the marsh. 



"Walking along one of these strips, in a direction where the pair of Cranes was said to be 

 often heard, I came upon a nest which I was sure must be a Crane's. I saw one bit of down. 

 The nest was made of very small twigs mixed with long sedgy grass ; altogether several inches in 

 depth, and perhaps two feet across. In it were two lining-membranes of eggs ; and on searching 

 amongst the materials of the nest I found fragments of the shells. We had not gone many yards 

 beyond this place, when I saw a Crane stalking in a direction across us amongst some small birch 

 trees, now appearing to stoop a little, and now holding its head and neck boldly up as it steadily 

 advanced. Presently the lads called out to me that they had found some young Cranes. As I 

 ran towards them, a Crane, not the one I had previously seen, rose just before me from among 

 some bushes which were only two or three feet high, and not twenty yards from the place where 

 the lads had been shouting at least for a minute or two. It rose into the air in a hurried, 

 frightened way. There was nothing just at the spot where it got up, neither eggs nor young. 

 I then went up to where the two little Cranes were found. They were standing upright, and 

 walking about with some facility, and making a rather loud 'cheeping' cry. They seemed as if 

 they could have left such eggs as Cranes were supposed to lay only a very few days. I say 

 supposed ; for in England we know nothing of the eggs which are called Cranes', but which may 

 have come from any part of the world. They were straightly made little things, short in the 

 beak, livid in the eye, thick in the knees, covered with a moderately long chestnut or tawny- 

 coloured down, darker on the upper parts, softening away into paler underneath. As I fondled 



