the entry: “ It is thought that Cranys muste he hadde at
Crystynmas and other principall feestes for myLordes owne
Mees, so they he boght at xvj<2. a pece,” equivalent to about
eight shillings of our money. In the Norfolk ‘ Household
Book* of:the L’E stranges ef Hunstanton, already quoted
(p. 95), there are five references to Cranes, and by oné 'of
these, in 1583, ‘‘ the xxvjth weeke [after the 29th- March,
i.e. about September 26th], the price’paid appears to have
been only vjd. Later, in the same year, occurs the ominous
record: “ The xxxviijth weke, Tewysdayëy Itm. a Crahne
kylld wt. the gun.” By Dngàale’ é-Origines JurÛiêiêles,
we learn that by 1555 the.'price charged for a Crane at a
banquet in the Inner Temple Hall in October, had’ already
risen to xs., the same as for a Swan or Bustard. Previous
to this, date; by an Act passed in 1584, thè taking of eggs
of the Crane and of the Bustard had been prohibited under
the same maximum penalty of 2 0 d. for every hgg ; ' showing
that although becoming scarcer than in former-dames,
Cranes were still numbered amongst birds which bred in
this country ; principally, no doubt, in the marshes of the
Eastern: counties. It was, probably, of that district that
Dr. William Turner, who although a ^Northumbrian by
birth, ' lffed-nearly fifteen years at-Cambridge, "wrote, “ ApuÉ
Anglos etiam nidulantur grues inÜbgff palustribu§,~ët-earum
pipioneé sæpissime vidi, quèd^quidam extra Angli&m nati,
falsum esse contendunt.” * Half a century-lafref, Dr. Thomas
Muffet, of Bulbridge, near WiltoS) Wiltshire, ^Ifô^died in
1590, confirms the statement that the^'Orahe still bred in
the fens.f
Drayton, describingLincoln shire) says : | |
‘‘ There stalks the stately Crime, as though he marched in ■warre,” p -
* Avium Historié Colonise, 1544.
+ “ Health’s I mprovement ; or, Rules comprising and discovering the Nature,
Method and Manner of Preparing all Sorts "ÆjFocd used in thus Nation.
Corrected and enlarged by, Christopher Bennet, TËe learned
Doctor considers ‘ ^ïhéflçsh [of the Crâne] dis fcin’ctly unfit fo t sound men’s tables,
and much more unmeet for them that be sick ;j.y0 being joying, killed with a
Goshawk, and hanged two or three daies by the beds, eaten with hot galentine,
and drowned in Sack, It'is permitted ùnîo indifferent stbmactô.”
t “ Poly-olbion,” 25th'Song, line
And about É667 Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich,'is found
writing: “ Cranes are often seen here in hard winters,
especially about the champian (sic) and fieldy part. It
seems they have been "more plentiful) for in a bill of fare,
when the Mayor entertained the Duke of Norfolk, I met
with Cranes in a dish.” * In 1678 Witiughby, in his
Orrdthobgia, was Still able to saÿ, They come to ùs often
in England, and in the fen-countries in Lincolnshire ‘ and
Cambridgeshire there arA great flocks of them ; but whether
or no/they breed in England, I Cannot determine, either of
my own knowledge, or from the relation of* any—credible
person.” Bay addsno original information respecting this
bird. It may fairly-be assumed that the Crane has ceased
to breed in this country for nearly three centuries, and that
with ‘ the: dying out of' tire' immediate descendants of those
individuals which used to nest'in, our marshes/a gradual
decrease to'dh place1 even in the nmnbèr' of those- annual
visitants which were impelled by the - 'eoM-^óf the Continent
to t e k their food in the milder and more opén feh§ of these
Western islands. With'-flMe- drainage'of thbir former haunts,
the increase of population, and the general use^ef fire-arms,
even theseiperiodical ^Mts'°ce%s©Hf;• and, iri- the- preséht cen-
turypËt^éwaSre caferonly^be' considered’ a rare and irregular
straggler to bar chords, generally in autumn and winter :
although fsoMetiines)1bn ‘the' spring migratiopÿ Cornwall,
Devon,Somerset; Dorsetshire; Hampshire, Sussex,. Kent,
:©^brdshire, ' Sdffolkf NoasÉt^ Linéolhshire—thb^latest near
Spalding on the'i25'th October, 1882^Zdof/ 1882, p. 468)
’S te e s tè rshire'/ and Yorkshire) are amongst the counties
visited ; :?the years: 1815 rand 1869 having been unusually
productive in arrivals.
Ip ScôtlahdJAwpf^ïirrencbs are 'cited by Mr. B. Gray in
Boss-shire ; one in Aberdeen shires; and- one near Hawick; ip
?J|rddburghshire ;; whilstin ^O rk n e y s “a-g|od' many examples
are on record, and e^en. more in the Shetland. Islands one,
.evidently on migration-, having been obtained in d3h st • so
irecéntly as’ tke’-’ehd -of May, 186^/' In Ireland, the occur-
* Wilkin’s Edition/lo f ; iv. p. S14. ’Pickering, '18â5/>'