Genus GRUS. 



Gen. Char. Beak longer than the head, straight, strong, compressed, pointed. Nostrils 

 placed horizontally in the anterior part of a furrow, large, concave, pervious, posteriorly 

 closed by a membrane. Legs long, strong, naked above the joint; three toes in front; 

 middle toe united to the outer one by a membrane; hind toe articulated high up on the 

 tarsus. Wings moderate, rounded ; first quill-feather shorter than the second ; the third 

 the longest. 



COMMON CRANE. 



Grus cinerea, Bechst. 

 La Grue cendree. 



That the Crane was once common in England is a fact learned from the accounts of all the writers on 

 Falconry, who enumerate it among the noblest game, which the Jer and Peregrine Falcons could alone 

 encounter. The gradual cultivation of the country, the draining of marshes, and the inclosure of wild tracts 

 since those days, have almost wholly banished this elegant bird from our island ; still, however, it pays 

 occasional visits, and few seasons pass without a specimen being killed within the precincts of En<dand. 

 As in the present day, it must then have been a bird of passage, appearing only in autumn and winter ; since 

 its native climate appears to be the higher northern latitudes, both of Europe and the adjoining parts of 

 Asia, whence they pass southwards, being forced to abandon their solitary realms upon the approach of 

 winter, and gladly returning when spring opens the frozen regions, and again offers a friendly asylum. 



Flocks of these birds are seen at stated times in France and Germany, passing northwards and southwards 

 as the season may be, in marshalled order, high in the air, their sonorous voices distinctly sounding even from 

 their elevated course. Occasionally they descend, attracted by new-sown fields, or the prospect of finding 

 food in marshes, the borders of rivers, or even the shores of the sea ; but generally they continue their flight 

 unchecked towards their destined resting-place. 



The food of the Crane is of a more mixed nature than is usual among the great class of Waders, grains 

 and plants, especially such as grow in morasses and moist lands, being added to worms, frogs and fresh- 

 water shells. 



The nest is usually placed among reeds, thick osier beds, and the matted foliage which borders lakes and 

 morasses ; but sometimes also on the tops of old ruins and similar buildings, where solitude invites to the 

 great task of incubation. The eggs are two in number, of a dull greenish hue with dashes of brown. 



The young of the year, besides having the plumes of the wings little developed, are distinguishable by the 

 want of the bare space on the top of the head, or at least in its being but barely indicated, while the black 

 of the front of the neck and occiput is not yet apparent, or indicated only by a few dark streaks. 



The adult birds, male and female, are similar in colour, the plumes being less elongated and graceful in the 

 female. 



The whole of the body is of a delicate grey, the throat, the fore part of the neck, and the occiput, being of 

 a deep greyish black ; the forehead and space between the eye and the beak garnished with black hairs ; the 

 top of the head is naked and reel ; the secondaries form a beautiful flowing pendent plume, each feather 

 being long and decomposed, consisting of loose unconnected barbs hanging half way to the ground ; the 

 beak greenish black, passing into horn colour at the tip, but reddish at its base; tarsi black; irides reddish 

 brown. Length, from beak to tail, three feet ten inches. 



The aged birds have a white space passing from behind the eye over the cheeks, and along the side of the 

 neck for a considerable distance. 



Our Plate represents an adult male nearly one half of the natural size. 



