crane's flesh. 
83 
houses, alllioiigli more generally, when it did build in this 
country, it chose the solitary waste and marsh land for a 
resting place. There is an old English statute for preserving 
its eggs, and its flesh appears to have been highly valued 
as a table delicacy : ^ it is,' says Wiiloughby, * very savoury 
and well tasted, not to say delicate.' That it fetched a 
good price in the market we may learn from ^ The Northum- 
berland Household Book,' where it is put down at sixteen 
pence. Among the items of a sumptuous repast given 
at the enthronisation of Archbishop Newell, we find 204 
Cranes. 
Pegg says, in his ^ Form of Cuny,' that * William the 
Conqueror Avas remarkable for an immense paunch, and 
withal was so exact, so nice and curious in his repasts, 
that when his prime favourite, William Fitz Osborne, who 
as dupifer, or steward of the household, had the charge of 
his curry, served him with the flesh of a Crane scarcely 
half roasted, the king was so highly exasperated that he 
lifted up his foot, and would have struck him, had not 
Eudo, who was appointed dupifer immediately after, 
warded off the blow.' 
Like the- feathers of the Ostrich, those of the Crane, 
which are long and drooping, are valuable as plumes. 
The Crane is frequently mentioned by the ancient poets ; 
the prophet Jeremiah alludes to it, as we have seen in the 
extract from Eichardson ; and it occupies a sort of heroic 
place in the classic legend of Ibycus, who was a poet of 
Ehegium about 540 years before Christ. He was murdered 
by robbers, and at the moment of death implored the 
assistance of some Cranes which were flying over his head. 
A while after, as the murderers were in the market-place, 
they observed some of these birds in the air, and one said to 
his companion, * there are the birds that know of the death 
of Ibycus.' He was overheard, the assassins were seized, 
and tortured until they confessed their guilt. Schiller has 
written a fine poem on the subject. 
BUSTARDS. 
The Otine birds, or Bustards, constitute a family of the 
Eunners, said to be intermediate between the Partridges 
r 2 
