5 
looked, featherless as they of course were, like little arms, and often stumbled over sticks or holes in the soil. 
When the border of the meadow, which was very rough with long grasses and dwarf creeping willows, was reached, 
and the chicks gave signs of being tired, the female Crane gave a short hard note, upon which the chicks suddenly 
disappeared, hiding themselves in the tall grasses. Now both the old birds began to run in real earnest keeping the body 
in a horizontal position and head and neck very low. The cock, which could easily be recognized by its larger size, ran 
rather far away, even flying now and then for a few yards, with extended neck and legs, but the female ran circling 
round us, now and then crouching in the grass and pretending to be busy with something under her, doubtless to make 
us suppose that she had the chicks with her, in order to tempt us away from the place where the little ones really were. 
I made her believe that I was her dupe and followed her at some distance. She ran away in the same fussy way until 
she reached the male, when both began to trumpet loudly. As I now went off in another direction opposite to that 
where the chicks lay hidden, both birds leisurely stalked away till nearly out of sight, feeding now and then on the way, 
as if they were perfectly satisfied. Hiding behind some bushes I now saw, that when far away, they began to come 
back describing a large circle, keeping behind the bushes all the time so as to cover their return in the direction of the 
chicks. Not wishing to disturb them again I went away, to let them recover their little downy treasures in peace. 
My guide, who unfortunately has the bad habit of taking the young Cranes when they are about three weeks 
old to sell them to Zoological Gardens, etc., told me that at that age, they run so swiftly that it is only possible to 
catch them if one manages to come upon them very suddenly. In that case the parents would order the chicks to squat 
down in the manner described, and by careful search the young birds could then be found and taken. If the old birds 
discover a man in the distance they will all run away, and the ground being swampy and uneven it is impossible to 
overtake them. 
The man had taken the chicks for about fifteen consecutive years, and yet, as he believed, the identical old pair 
of birds came to breed in the same neighbourhood year after year. He had found that the same nest was never used 
two years in succession, and he had observed that if one of the old birds was surprised when sitting, and found it could 
not escape observation by crouching down, as it would at first try to do, it would run away, hiding between the bushes 
and never taking wing unless absolutely forced to do so by close pursuit. 
In the district within reach of the place where my guide lived, three pairs of Cranes generally breed, but always 
far away from each other and in fact there are hours of walk between each breeding place. The eggs are generally laid 
in the last half of April. The man believed firmly, though on what evidence he could not tell, that the male always 
has the care of the male chick and the female of the female chick, and that the young, if there are two, which is the usual 
number — one being the exception and three having never come under his observation all those years — always form a pair. 
On my way home the road led through some beautiful forests of magnificent Scotch and Spruce firs, and in the 
very midst of it, on a giant Scotch fir, right in the top, on a fork in a side branch, was the nest of a Black Stork 
[Ciconia nigra) from which my amiable guide had taken three young ones the year before. The nest must have been 
firmly made, as the winter gales had had no effect on it, and it looked quite fresh. The Black Stork is still fairly abun¬ 
dant in the district, and my lean companion expected to take about a dozen young birds of this species this year. The 
ground on which the tree, containing the nest, stood, wks rather swampy, as was also the greater part of the forest, 
but became dried up in summer, as I was told, as also did the greater part of the ground on which the Cranes breed. 
At last, after a walk of about six hours, now and then lengthened by our having to dodge local authorities, who 
might not have quite appreciated the character of my guide and would have put troublesome questions, and after having 
been very much teased by swarms of big horse-flies, we reached our village again. There for half-an-hour or more 
I had to search for my coachman, who had gone to sleep in some corner only known to himself, and after having taken 
leave of my excellent, blue-trousered guide and his little lady, I drove back to Hanover well satisfied with my day. 
The Cranes which breed in the above-mentioned countries leave those localities as soon as the young are strong- 
enough to travel. They then congregate first in small troops and finally in large flocks, and leave the country in August 
and the beginning of September. The more their breeding quarters are to the north the earlier in the season of course 
they begin their migration. The Cranes of Europe travel to the Mediterranean, a few remaining in winter on the Euro¬ 
pean side of it, but the greater number cross it to winter in Northern Africa and along the valley of the Nile. 
The Asiatic Cranes winter in the Yang-tse basin, these being probably the birds that nest northwards of that 
region, but perhaps some of these, and certainly the generality of the Cranes that breed eastward of the both, meridian, 
winter in the plains of Northern India. 
Of the migration of European Cranes we find an excellent account given by Mess^'s A. and K. Muller, (Thiere der 
Heimath, II, p. 440) who made special observations on the subject. They observed in the Odenwald, the Taunus and 
its branches, the Vogelsberg and the mountains of the Hessische Hinterwald, as it was called in former days, that the 
Cranes regularl}? follow the same aerial roads on their travels. In the Hinterwald for instance, there were two cuts in 
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