NUMIDIAN CRAN^E. 
it seems even t6 prefer shew to it's food ; and 
follows after a person, as if to solicit another 
look. 
' These," continues BufFon, are the re- 
marks of the Academicians, on the Numidian 
'Cranes, of which they had several in the Me-; 
nagerie at Versailles. They compared their 
steps, their postures, and their gestures, to 
G-ipsey dances ; and Aristotle seems to allude to 
heir manner of jumping, when he says, that 
they are caught when they dance opposite 
me another." 
Though this bird was famous among the 
ncients, it was little known, and seldom seen, 
1 Greece or Italy ; and, confined to it's own 
limate, it enjoyed a sort of fabulous celebrity, 
liny, after terming it, in one place, the Pan- 
>mime ; joins it, in another, with the Syrens, 
, le GrifRns, and the Pegasuses. It was late ' 
ifore the moderns were acquainted with it: 
J ,ey confounded it with the Scops, and Otus, 
^ ' the Greeks, and the Asio of the Latins ; on 
jcount of the odd gestures of that OvvL whose, 
i^s were supposed to be represented by the 
