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Genus GRUS.
Gen. Char. B e a k longer than the head, straight, strong, compressed, pointed. N os tr ils
placed horizontally in the anterior part of a furrow, large, concave, pervious, posteriorly
closed by a membrane. L e g s long, strong, naked above the joint; three toes in front;
middle toe united to the outer one by a membrane ; hind toe articulated high up on the
tarsus. Wings moderate, rounded ; first quill-feather shorter than the second ; the third
the longest.
COMMON CRANE.
G ru s cinerea, Be chst.
L a G ru e cendrée.
T h a t the Crane was once common in England is a fact learned from the accounts o f all the writers on
Falconry, who enumerate it among the noblest game, which the Jer and Peregrine Falcons could alone
encounter. The gradual cultivation o f the country, the draining o f marshes, and the inclosure o f wild tracts
since those days, have almost wholly banished this elegant bird from our island; still, however, it pays
occasional visits, and few seasons pass without a specimen being killed within the precincts of England.
As in the present day, it must then have been a bird o f passage, appearing only in autumn and winter ; since
its native climate appears to be the higher northern latitudes, both o f Europe and the adjoining parts of
Asia, whence they pass southwards, being forced to abandon their solitary realms upon the approach of
winter, and gladly returning when spring opens the frozen regions, and again offers a friendly asylum.
Flocks o f these birds are seen at stated times in France and Germany, passing northwards and southwards
as the season may be, in marshalled order, high in the air, their sonorous voices distinctly sounding even from
their elevated course. Occasionally they descend, attracted by new-sown fields, or the prospect o f finding
food in marshes, the borders o f rivers, or even the shores o f the sea ; but generally they continue their flight
unchecked towards their destined resting-place.
The food of the Crane is o f a more mixed nature than is usual among the great class o f Waders, grains
and plauts, especially such as grow in morasses and moist lands, being added to worms, frogs and freshwater
shells.
The nest is usually placed among reeds, thick osier beds, and the matted foliage which borders lakes and
morasses ; but sometimes also on the tops o f old ruins and similar buildings, where solitude invites to the
great task o f incubation. The eggs are two in number, o f a dull greenish hue with dashes o f brown.
The young o f the year, besides having the plumes o f the wings little developed, are distinguishable by the
want o f the bare space on the top o f the head, or at least in its being but barely indicated, while the black
o f the front o f the neck and occiput is not yet apparent, or indicated only by a few dark streaks.
The adult birds, male and female, are similar in colour, the plumes being less elongated and graceful in the
female.
The whole o f the body is o f a delicate grey, the throat, the fore part o f the neck, and the occiput, being o f
a deep greyish black ; the forehead and space between the eye and the beak garnished with black hairs ; the
top o f the head is naked and red; the secondaries form a beautiful flowing pendent plume, each feather
being long and decomposed, consisting o f loose unconnected barbs hanging half way to the ground; the
beak greenish black, passing into horn colour at the tip, but reddish at its base; tarsi black; irides reddish
brown. Length, from beak to tail, three feet ten inches.
The aged birds have a white space passing from behind the eye over the cheeks, and along the side o f the
neck for a considerable distance.
Our Plate represents an adult male nearly one half o f the natural size.