NUMIDIAN CRANE. 
which are long> and pendant. This beautiful 
bird has received the name of I>emoissellc, or 
Miss, on account of it's elegant form, it's rich 
garb, audit's afFedled airs. It makes repeated 
reverences ; it walks with a sprightly ostenta- 
tion; and it often leaps, and springs, from 
gaiety, as if it meant to dance. This disposi- 
tion, which in some degree exists with the 
Crane, is so striking in the Numidian bird, 
that for more than two thousand years, during 
which it has been knovv^n, authors have con- 
stantly denominated it from it's mimic ges- 
tures. Aristotle calls it the A6lor, or Come- 
dian; Pliny, the Dancer, or Vaulter; and 
Plutarch mentions it's frolics, and it's address. 
It appears even to imitate the actions which it 
beholds. Xenophon, in Athenaeus, seems per- 
suaded of this : for," says he, " the fowlers 
rub their eyes before it with water which they 
pour into basons ; and then, filling these up 
with bird-lime, they retire, and the bird, copy- 
ing their example, rubs it's eyes and feet." 
Accordingly, Athenseus terms it, Ai/QfeoTrouhn ; 
cr, the Imitator of Man. The Dancing Bird 
of Numidia seems also to have copied our va- 
nity : it loves to be seen J and to exhibit itself; 
it 
