CRANE. 
515 
passage, it is said that the leader frequently calls to 
rally his forces, and point out the track ; and the 
cry is repeated by the flock, each answering, to give 
notice that it follows and keeps its rank. Milton, 
when he touches on this wonderful instinct of Na- 
ture, finely describes their progress : 
Part loosely wing the region : part more wise. 
In common rang’d in figure, wedge their way. 
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth 
Their airy caravan, high over seas 
Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing 
Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crane 
Her annual voyage, borne on winds 
The air floats as they pass, fann’d with unnumber’d plumes. 
Cranes during their flight are frequently seen to 
alter their direction ; and those who have observed 
these variations, say that they indicate a change of 
weather, and suppose that the vast height to which 
they soar enables them to perceive or to feel the 
distant alterations in the atmosphere. Aristotle 
made them his hygrometer, and tells us that the 
cries of cranes in the day-time forebode rain ; and 
.noisy confused screams announce a storm : if in the 
morning or evening they rise upwards, and fly 
peaceably in a body, it is a sign of fair weather; but 
if they keep low, or alight on the ground, it menaces 
a tempest. 
“ When the cranes,” says BufFon, “ are assembled 
on the ground, they set guards during the night ; 
and the circumspection of these birds has been con- 
secrated in the hieroglyphics, as the symbol of vigi- 
2 L 2 
