A writer on "Animal Helpers and Servers" gives a remarkable account of a
tame Crane, communicated by Von Seyffert. Von Seyffert had a pair of
tame Cranes which soon lost all fear of man and of domestic animals, and
became strongly attached to the former. Their life in a German village,
in which agriculture was the sole employment and the communal system of
joint herding of cattle and swine and driving them together to the
common pasture prevailed, was very much to their taste. They soon knew
all the inhabitants in the place and used to call regularly at the
houses to be fed. Then the female died and the survivor at once took as
a new friend a bull. He stood by the bull in the stall and kept the
flies off him, screamed when he roared, danced before him and followed
him out with the herd. In this association the Crane learned the duties
of cowherd, so that one evening he brought home the whole of the village
herd of heifers unaided and drove them into the stable. From that time
the Crane undertook so many duties that he was busy from dawn till
night. He acted as policeman among the poultry, stopping all fights and
disorder. He stood by a horse when left in a cart and prevented it from
moving by pecking its nose and screaming. A Turkey and a Game Cock were
found fighting, whereon the Crane first fought the Turkey, then sought
out and thrashed the cock. Meantime it herded the cattle, not always
with complete success. The bovines were collected in the morning by the
sound of a horn and some would lag behind. On one occasion the Crane
went back, drove up some lagging heifers through the street and then
frightened them so much that they broke away and ran two miles in the
wrong direction. The bird could not bring them back, but drove them
into a field, where it guarded them until they were fetched. It would
drive out trespassing cattle as courageously as a dog and, unlike
most busybodies, was a universal favorite and pride of the
village.--_Cornhill Magazine._
[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.
LEAST BITTERN.
Copyright by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.]