GRUS CINEREA
Common Crane.
Ardea grus, Linn. Faun, Suec., p. 67.
■Grus cinerea, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschi., tom. iv. p. 103.
eineracea, Brehm; Vög. Deutschi., p. 671.
communis, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb., tom. iL p. 271.
vulgaris, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.- Asiat., tom. ii.-p. 106.
The family of frruidúr, or Crane*, comprises nearly twenty known species, wim4. kmi: been «fontal
modern oatarafots mto many genera, O f the ©»tire number, about fifteen are »♦» Old H e
and three to the northern portion (4 the Neve. The members o f the former M tw i » ® over varii
portions o f the globe from China to Australia,' and from Lapland to nearly the 1
Common -Crane. the species here represented, enjoys perhaps a wider range than aov ,*f ««tars ; foi
is found in all suitable situations throughout North Africa, India, and China.
In Europe, it breeds in Spain and probably in most other countries in a northerly direction to the ve,
and even within the limits o f the Arctic circle. I t also forms a portion of the avifauna of India. By
earlier writers, who associated the Cranes with the Storks and Herons, we are told that it nested in Brita
but this is no longer the case, and we now only hear o f an example having been captured in our islands
uncertain intervals, our country having evidently become unfitted for such fine birds as the Crane, the I¡
and the Spoonbill, all o f which are now rarely seen. Still, scarcely a year passes without one being e fa e rr
the last instance with which I am acquainted being one seen in a field o f barley on the estate of A Hamo.
Esq., at Westacre, near Brandon, in Norfolk, in June 1850, Lord Lilford, when writing to mu ¡o. «
species, say s:— “ I well remember seeing two birds, which I am how convince«« wnn- Cototoofi fiv
at a g reat height over Hyde-Park Corner tunnv vears a£*>-- i ;4ioyk? my, in m s a f í n
I had then never seen Cranes on the wing before, fmd ia«eii iwfomifoti Mtti i h* W w
many other people in Kotien Row." Tbotnimoo, «leaking o f the CVflHf it* Uv.~. ;
formerly bred there, its visits are now as uncertain as i» Britain.
The Crane is a bird o f passage, migrating north and sooth acewrdtog ■ ■ ,afee .■■»vv.;.;;;©.. (g* . #
more abundant in Africa and India, white in summer it goes much further norih. l>im*vg n* ¡aémutoú*
becomes g regarious; and both wonderful and interesting is the Hppe&runce which the juoyuíjí
to the inhabitants of the regions over which they pass in spring and anímn» The accotnpa&Vto*
■ - '‘ff this inscription witnessed by Mr. Wolf on the Rhine, will give a far better oí vfe*
o f our living oroiiliotac'W&». Wftf a ittNMffitjissril «m «iS4> itafitee? 1 rjost refar my reaihvs to 1 The Ibis
o f 1850, from which only a sheri um tm i em W t» t* ,
“ In common, ’ says Mr Wolley, '* with* 1 | » » i e r vwr e d m such matters, I was long entirely
?w. (i5r«r ewxjiwr) would be found on first leaving the egg,
whether helpless like a V-; -■•'.i heron, or abi* a&Mttt JRfitr the vmu-r of most wading and gallinaceous birds.
The late Prince Charles Bonaparte bad lisriiwsd ©e tbridt tk ej would long continue nestlings; Mr. Gould, as he
assured me, had always opposed the probabs&ty &f dun « M m .
“ I t was on the 16th Jon«, 1663, that I entered the matvh which the well-known Pastor Leestadius had told me
was the most northern limit iu Lapland of the breeding of the Crane. I t is in Swedish territory, being on the
west side of the frontier river, opposite the Finnish (Russian) village of Yli Muonioniska, in about lat. 68°—that
is, some distance within the Arctic circle. This great marsh, called “ Iso noma,” is mostly composed of soft bog,
in which, unless where the bog-bean grows, one generally sinks up to the knees, or even to the middle; but it is
intersected by long strips of firmer bog-earth, slightly raised above the general level, and bearing creeping shrubs,
principally of sallow and dwarf birch, mixed in places with Ledum palustre, Vaccinium uliginosum, Andromeda polifolia,
Rubus chamamorus, besides grasses, Carices, mosses, and other plants.
“ Walking along ope of these strips, in a direction where the pair of Cranes was said to be often heard, I came
upon a nest which I was sure must be a Crane’s. I saw one bit of down. The nest was made of very small twigs
mixed with long sedgy grass, altogether several inches in depth, and perhaps two feet across. In it were two
lining membranes of eggs: and on searching amongst the materials of the nest, I found fragments of the shells. We
had not gone many yards beyond this place when I saw a Crane stalking in a direction across us amongst some small
birch ■ now appearing to stoop a little, and now holding its head and neck'boldly up as it steadily advanced.