On the Ornithology of Wilts [Gruidce], 



and their chief peculiarity consists in the long, flowing, flexible, and 

 firohed feathers, (reminding one of the plumes of the Ostrich ;) 

 which, curled at the end, and springing from the wing, overhang 

 tho tail, and which the bird can erect or depress at pleasure. 



"Common Crane." (Grus cinerea.) Though once known in 

 England as the common Crane, this specific title is a sad misnomer, 

 for this handsome bird is now become exceedingly scarce ; indeed 

 an occasional straggler alone visits us at rare intervals. But a 

 hundred years ago, it formed an important item at all state ban- 

 quets ; and was the noble quarry at which falconers were wont to 

 fly their largest hawks. It was pretty generally distributed over 

 all unenclosed districts, whenever uncultivated tracts enabled it to 

 roam undisturbed ; and doubtless our wide-spreading downs afforded 

 it a welcome retreat: but now the ornithologist must go to foreign 

 lands to see this noble bird in a wild state. In Egypt I have 

 watched it for hours on the mud-flats and sand banks of the Nile, 

 as it walked with majestic step a very king amidst the smaller 

 Waders : but the most complete monograph on any bird with 

 which I am acquainted is the story of the Crane in its breeding 

 place in Lapland, as detailed by my lamented friend, the late 

 Mr. John Wolley, in the Ibis, 1 a most perfect description of this 

 now uncommon bird. When migrating, as all known species of 

 Cranes do, it collects in large flocks, and is said to fly at a great 

 height, and to keep up a perpetual hoarse scream, or trumpet-like 

 shrill cry, which, owing to the very remarkable structure of the 

 wind-pipe, is louder than the note of any other bird, and which 

 may be heard when the birds are far out of sight. Mr. James 

 Waylen has most obligingly furnished me with the following 

 interesting anecdote of a Wiltshire Crane: "In 1783, it was 

 recorded in the Salisburj 7 paper that a gentleman shot a Crane, on 

 whose leg was found a piece of copper which he himself had 

 attached in the year 1767, after having caught the same bird by 

 means of a hawk : the copper plate bore his initials, and the date 

 1767." I am afraid that I have no more modern instance of the 

 occurrence of the Crane in Wiltshire. 



1 Ibis, vol. i., pp. 191—198. 



