AT HOME WITH MAN. 
331 
scouts was despatched, as if to 
decide whether it could be trusted ; 
and, finally, the whole band arrived. It is 
not only in his state of freedom that we 
become acquainted with all the admirable 
qualities of the crane. We must have made 
it our companion before we can appreciate 
its full value. And just as carefully as he 
avoids man when free, so does he jealously 
attach himself to him when once he has been 
tamed. There is not a bird, with the excep- 
tion of the most perfect parrots, which con- 
tracts so close a friendship with man as the 
crane, which understands so thoroughly all 
his gestures, or can be of greater service to 
him. He does not regard his master only 
as the one who feeds him, but as a friend; 
and he seeks to show that this is his convic- 
tion. He accustoms himself to an indoor 
life more easily than any other bird ; knows every corner of every 
room; he judges the exact degree of intimacy to which different persons 
