CRANE. 
513 
peror and the walls of the temples are decorated 
with their figures. In Persia, where they are like- 
wise very common, it is the prerogative of the 
prince to hunt them. “ At early dawn,” says 
Oleanus, “ the king sent to inform the ambassa- 
dors, that he would go with a very few attendants 
to the chase of the cranes, entreating them not to 
bring their interpreters, that the cranes might not 
be scared by a multitude, nor the pleasure of the 
sport be disturbed by noise. It began with the 
day. A covered way had been made under ground, 
at the end of which was the plain, where corn had 
been scattered ; the cranes came in great numbers, 
and more than four score were caught. The king 
took some feathers to put into his turban, and gave 
two to each of the ambassadors, who stuck them into 
their hats.” 
From this account it appears that these birds must 
be as numerous in Persia as in Poland, where, it is 
said, the peasants are obliged to build huts in the 
midst of their fields of buck-wheat, to drive them off. 
They are scattered over great part of the globe, and 
not only visit all the temperate climates, but are 
found in the two extremes ; migrating as far north 
as Siberia, and into the southern parts of Africa. In 
Ray’s time they frequented England, and appeared 
in large flocks in the fens of Lincolnshire and 
Cambridgeshire; but they now very rarely visit this 
island, and are at present scarcely known to the in- 
habitants of those counties. 
The plumage of the crane is of a fine waved light 
2 L 
VOL. I. 
