12 
Hab. Eastern Siberia and Mantchuria, wintering in Corea and the Yangtse basin; a rare straggler in Japan. 
This is the Crane so well known from the numerous figures of it drawn on all sorts of Japanese works of art. From 
its constant appearance before the public in this way, and from the more or less incorrect accounts of it received from Japan 
(beginning with what Kaempfer says of it in his ‘Birds of Japan’) it has become the general belief that this crane is a 
native of Japan and is held sacred by the Japanese. On this subject, however, Prof Ijima, of Tokio, gives me the 
following information; — “All Cranes, especially Grus japonensis^ as well as turtle-doves are considered by Japanese as 
“symbolical of long life. On this account, and also on account of their beauty, they are universally admired, and often 
“ kept in gardens. In olden times they were placed in the first class of Game-birds for noble hawkers, and hence were 
“very strictly protected. / should not say that Cranes xvere ever held in any degree sacred^ for every hawker and gunner 
“would have killed them if they could, either for sport or for the sake of their flesh. I do not think that the latter was 
“relished by anybody, but it was nevertheless valued, partly for its rarity and partly on account of the belief that it 
“gives longevity to those who eat it.” 
The breeding range of this Crane extends over Eastern Siberia and Mantchuria. In 1867 Dr. Dybowski saw a 
flock of it near Darasun, and also observed it near the mouth of the Ussuri. Bogdanow found it in the same locality, 
and also on Lake Hanke, where it was likewise observed by Prjevalsky in 1867. It has been stated that this Crane 
breeds, or has bred in the Japanese Archipelago, but Prof Ijima is of a different opinion. He writes to me “I doubt 
“very much the statements that certain species of Cranes used to breed naturally in Japan. Were they not based on 
“information given by natives, who confounded birds in confinement with those in a free state? Or it may be that the 
“imaginary pictures of Grtis japoiiensis nesting on a tall pine tree, so often met with in Japanese works of art, had a 
“great deal to do with the matter. The more reliable old Japanese works on birds agree in considering all the Cranes 
“as foreign birds, and in giving autumn as the time of their appearance in Japan. Nowhere is their nesting mentioned, 
“except in one instance, in which the author was told of a pair of Grus japomnsis that annually bred near a marsh at 
“the foot of the Fuji. The author seems not to disbelieve the story, but explicitly terms it a very rare and exceptional 
“case. One author condemns the habit of artists who paint this bird as perching or as nesting on tall trees, and says 
“that cranes make their nest on islands in ponds (it is evident that he is speaking of birds kept in gardens) among bushes 
“of low pine trees, at a height of about one or two feet from the ground, so that the bird can incubate while standing 
“on foot. Grus japonensis^ although the commonest species represented in pictures in Japan seems to have been by no 
“means so in real life.” 
I think that there is an explanation for this artists’ practice of figuring Grus japonensis perched and nesting 
on tall pine trees. The Japanese Stork [Ciconia boyciana) has a superficial resemblance to Grtis japonensis, and the native 
artists not being ornithologists may have mixed up the Crane with the Stork in their pictures — thinking perhaps that 
two birds which are so much alike in feather must necessarily also resemble each other in their habits. It is even possible 
that the artists did not know that they were not one and the same bird. 
I can find no information about the nesting of this species in a wild state, but in confinement it is a ready 
breeder, and produces eggs and young more regularly than any other species. Japanese Cranes have bred for several 
seasons at the Menagerie du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, 
and also in many private gardens both in China and Japan. My own pair at ’s Graveland have bred regularly every year 
since 1892. The female of this pair was still in immature dress when I received her, whilst the male was quite adult. 
In 1891 they began to build a nest, but as the female was probably still too young no eggs were laid. As the male 
wanted to sit and there were no eggs, he pulled up from the bottom of the pond two large pieces of brick and 
placed them in the nest. He then began to sit on them, and soon afterwards the female began to take her turn, so 
that everything went on as regularly as if there had been actual eggs. When I took the bricks away after some weeks, 
the birds were very angry, and made a nest at another place and placed two new bricks in it. 
In the early spring of 1892 my birds again became very lively, and constructed a nest composed of a few diy 
grasses close by the pond in their enclosure In the beginning of May the first egg was laid, the female being then five 
years old. /The birds began to sit immediately, and the second egg followed two days after. Both the birds incubated, 
the male mostly during the night and the female usually during the day. After thirty days from the laying of the first 
^ small hole became visible in the shell of one of the eggs, and the bill of a chick could clearly be seen. The 
following day the shell was completely opened, and the chick was set at liberty. Just as the first chick was born the 
bill of the second became visible on the surface of the other egg, and the chick came out complete on the evening of the 
following day. So soon as the first born young became strong it wanted to run about, and was conducted at a small 
distance round the nest by one of the parents, the other one remaining on the nest to keep the second little one safe. 
During this perioct both parent birds sat on the nest during the night, each of them having one chick in charge. This 
