160 MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE BREEDING OF THE CRANE. 
vr. 
ON THE BREEDING OF THE CRANE IN EAST ANGLIA. 
By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., Y.-P. 
Rear! 99tli January, 1901. 
There is no bird, with perhaps the single exception of the Bustard, 
possessed of greater interest to the East Anglian Ornithologist than 
the Crane, and to a large extent the claims of both these fine birds 
to our special regard are due to similar circumstances : both were 
the largest of their kind inhabiting Britain; the one was the greatest 
ornament to the wild uplands, and the other graced with its stately 
presence the all but inaccessible fens, which in times past formed 
the chief feature of a vast tract of country, comprising parts of 
the counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk. The 
Crane was above all the grandest quarry of the Falconer, and 
nothing less than the largest of all Falcons, the Gyrfalcon, could be 
successfully flown against it; added to which no royal feast or civic 
banquet was complete without the Crane, (too often accompanied by 
the Bustard,) appearing amongst the chief dishes at the abundantly 
furnished tables. Many such banquets are on record, and it is 
mainly to culinary estimation that we owe most of the surviving 
information with regard to this bird as a former inhabitant of the 
British Isles. 
The investigation of the history of the Crane as an inhabitant 
of East Anglia would, doubtless, amply repay the labour involved 
in searching the records existing in the muniment rooms of public 
bodies, especially those preserved in such towns as Lincoln, Boston, 
Cambridge, Ely, and Norwich, and in the household accounts of 
