170 MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE BREEDING OF* THE CRANE. 
are (p. 91) : “Cranes breed (as old Dr. Turner writ unto Gesner) 
not only in the northern countries among the nation of dwarfs, 
but also in our English Fens .... Certain it is that they are of 
themselves hard, tough, gross, sinewy .... yet being young, 
killed with a Goshawk, and hanged two or three daies by their 
heels, eaten with hot galentine, and drowned in sack, it is permitted 
unto indifferent stomachs.” He may, however, have had in his 
mind home-bred Pipers when describing their esculent qualities. 
It is even possible, although less probable, that the Cranes which 
graced the feast given in honour of the Duke of Norfolk in June, 
1663, before referred to, may have had a local origin. Certain it is, 
that when the Crane was no longer successful in rearing its young 
in this country, its extinction must rapidly have followed, and 
although the members of the native race probably returned to the 
place of their birth so long as any of them existed, with the 
dying out of these indigenous birds would doubtless cease the 
annual visits of this species to East Anglia, a process of extinction 
precisely similar to that which in our days we have regretfully 
witnessed with regard to the Ruff. 
I have thus endeavoured to trace the extinction of the Crane in 
this district as a resident or as a regular summer visitor, as well as 
to record what is known of it as breeding in East Anglia, and I trust 
the discovery of the interesting fact of its having nested so near 
to this City, may be accepted as the one fact extenuating the 
poyerty in other respects of this communication. I will only add 
that the last appearance of this grand bird in Norfolk was in 
April, 1898, when a flock of four were seen on two or three occasions 
in the neighbourhood of Cley and Runton, resting on their spring 
migratory journey, and I am proud to add that, to the honour of 
Norfolk ornithologists, they finally departed unmolested. 
