Sub-Order GRUES. 



Family GRUIDjE. 



THE CRANE. 

 Grus communis, Bechstein. 

 Plate 6i. 



From an old Act of Parliament, protecting the eggs of the Crane, passed about 

 the year 1533, it is evident that this fine species nested regularly in the fens of our 

 eastern counties at that period and for some time onwards, but it is not known to 

 have bred in England later than 1590, though flocks regularly visited this country 

 in winter to a much later date. Now it is only known as a bird of passage, and 

 is rarely seen in our islands. 



In spring large flocks leave their winter quarters in Africa and travel northward 

 to breed in various parts of Europe, from Scandinavia, Russia, and Northern 

 Germany, southwards to Spain, Italy, and the Balkan Peninsula, also possibly in 

 Western Siberia and Turkestan, whilst a paler race breeds in Eastern Siberia and 

 winters in North-west India. 



Wooley, who has given a charming account of the breeding of the Crane in 

 Lapland {Ibis, 1859), says: "The two eggs lay with their long diameters parallel 

 to one another, and there was just room for a third egg to be placed between them. 

 The nest, about two feet across, was nearly flat, made chiefly of light-coloured grass 

 or hay loosely matted together, scarcely more than two inches in depth, and raised 

 only two or three inches from the general level of the swamp. There were higher 

 sites close by ; and many of them would have seemed more eligible. ... At 

 length, as I had my glass in the direction of the nest, which was three or four 

 hundred yards off, I saw a tall grey figure emerging from amongst the birch-trees, 

 just beyond where I knew the nest must be ; and there stood the Crane in all the 

 beauty of nature, in the full side-light of an Arctic summer night. She came on 

 with her graceful walk, her head up, and she raised it a little higher and turned her 

 beak sideways and upwards as she passed round the tree. ... At length she 

 turned back and passed her nest a few paces in the opposite direction, but soon 

 came into it ; she arranged with her beak the materials of the nest, or the eggs, or 



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