516 
CRANE. 
lance. The flock sleep with their head concealed 
under their wing ; but the leader watches with his 
head erect ; and if any thing alarms him, he gives 
notice by a cry.” This account is strengthened by 
the authority of Kolben, who observed large flocks 
of cranes in the marshes about the Cape of Good 
Hope ; but never saw a flock of them on the 
ground, without some placed apparently as senti- 
nels, to keep a look-out while the others were feed- 
ing ; and these on the approach of danger imme- 
diately gave notice to the rest. We are likewise 
informed by him, that these sentinels stand on one 
leg ; and at intervals stretch out their necks, as if to 
observe that all is safe. On a signal being given 
from the watch, the whole flock are instantly on the 
wing. 
Though these birds feed on grain, and frequent 
the fields to collect it, yet they prefer insects, worms, 
and small reptiles ; and are therefore, like the stork, 
of great service in Egypt, where they are said to 
take up their winter quarters. 
A white crane is found in North America, which 
from its peculiar cry is called the hooping crane. 
These birds appear about Hudson’s Bay in the sum- 
mer time, and return to the southward as soon as 
the winter approaches. They make a remarkable 
hooping noise, which made Mr. Pennant imagine 
them to be the birds whose clamour Captain Philip 
Amidas, the first Englishman who ever set foot on 
North America, so graphically describes on his 
landing on the isle of Wokakow, off the coast of 
