A LECTORIDES. GRU1DJE. In former Editions of this work the Crane was classed in
Gtbtjb 'tfOMMUNi-Sj* Bechstein.*
T H E ^ f f M MON CE £ $ t u
' G%ws., cingveg,.
fejl&R'EFSi Bechstdnf.—Beak -longer than -the head,'straight, strong,' eompressed,
and pointed. , Nostrils placed -longitudinally in a,'furrow, large, .pervious, closed
posteriorly, by a membrane. Legs long, strong, naked abpxp the joint; three
toes in front; middle toe united to^the'outer toe by a membrane’; hind t'oe
articulated high, up om idS^tarsus. Wings moderate^* founded' in form ; the
first quill-feather shorter than the second ; the third the longest in the wing.
s'-'f Vbg, Beutschl iii. -ft locMyit. '
the same order with the Herons; but it is now generally
admitted by modern systematise that the Gruida have no
real affinity to the Ardmd^. The young of the Herons
and -Storks are nearly; .naked' and helpless wh.en hatched,
whereas the young of the Cranes are eovered with a close
down, and they are .able to run about soon after emerging
from the shell, -like those: of the Eails, the Bustards, and the
Plovers, In the gtructui’e, and also in the, external coloration
of the .shell, the eggs of .some of the Cranes have-considerable
resemblance, to "those;of the Bustards;: and the two
families of the Gruidcp. “.and the tOüdidïar are now generally
placed in the Order iAUU&%dps. | ■
Though at- the present-.=#%e-rOPly an .occasional and rare
visitowte^the- British X&ï^hd-s^th# Crane was formerly much
more- frequent. In a |letter- addressed to Boniface, Bishop
óf Mayence,*'-who - died in '7551-, Saxon -King Etpielbert
resisted him to send.-pye^'two Falcons suitabf^for flying at
tf%Craue. in Kent*$-. f^-G-yrfaleons; : Giraldus Cambrensis,
who ^travelled in Ireland 'in 1183.-86,. in company with
Prince John,.>statfs that Cranes- were th e ^ g i numerous
that a® many as a .hundred or thereahg^M" might" '.often ,be
seen in one flopk;j> and similar testimony is given by Banul-
phus Higden E'cifc® 1350), After the -accesgion. of John -to
the throne-,Vfthe entrdesi in the eoTjrt-roll® °J? his expenses
.show that ;he was in /habit of* flying G^rfeleons at this
bird -;om .his various journeys-;'" seven - Cranes .having been
obtained;in .this manne^at^ Ashwelh-in -Cambridgeshire;- in
g em b e r 1212, and nine in Lincolnshire on another- -occa-
s& /~ Lei and, in h is i^ o ||^ g ^ -, rincludes in the bilJ-of fare
at the,feast of ArchbishoptNeyilie:(^b^- Edward I^ ) ,r two
hundred and four Cranes;,/and, .according to Sir David
Lindsay^-Crame® were also served at a grand hunting enter,
tainment given4"-by the Earl of Athol “|o James Y. af .Scot?
land and the Queen Mother^d^ Glen Tilt. In the * Household
Hook’ of the fifth Earl.of- NorfhómberlandP.( 1512-),'OCcó.rs
J. E. Harting, ‘The Field/- December 23rd,'1882, in a very interesting
article on thé early récords of this bird.