_BUSTARDS AND CRANES._
The Plover Tribe, Bustards, Cranes, and Rails form a large group of diverse
but probably closely related forms.
Of the Bustards, the most interesting and important species is the GREAT
BUSTARD. About a hundred years ago this magnificent bird might have been
seen any day in such favoured localities as the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
wolds, the Norfolk and Suffolk "brecks," the heaths of Newmarket, or the
downs of Berkshire and Wiltshire. It owes its extermination to several
causes, foremost among which must be reckoned the reclaiming of waste land
and improved methods of agriculture. "The bulk of its body," says Professor
Newton, "renders it a conspicuous and stately object; and when on the wing,
to which it readily takes, its flight is not inferior in majesty to that of
the eagle." The expanse of the outstretched wings of a great bustard is 8
feet, or even more; and the weight of the male may even exceed 35 lbs. The
female is smaller.
[Illustration: _Photo by Ottomar Anschütz_] [_Berlin._
COMMON CRANE.
This handsome bird used to breed in Britain till the end of the sixteenth
century.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green._
MANCHURIAN CRANE.
The piebald plumage of this species is distinctive.]
To see the great bustard in a wild state to-day, one would have to travel
to Spain. And if one could make a pilgrimage for this purpose during the
birds' courting-season, some very wonderful antics on the part of the male
would be witnessed. These antics make up what is really a very elaborate
love-display. In this performance the bird inflates his neck with wind,
draws his head closely down on to the back, throws up his tail, so as to
make the most of the pure white feathers underneath, and sticks up certain
of the quill-feathers of the wing in a manner that only a great bustard
can. Certain long feathers projecting from each side of the head now stand
out like the quills of the porcupine, forming a sort of _cheval-de-frise_
on either side of the head, and complete the picture, which, in our eyes,
savours of the ludicrous. The inflation of the neck is brought about by
filling a specially developed wind-bag between the gullet and the skin with
air through a small hole under the tongue. For many years it was believed
this bag was used as a sort of water-bottle, to enable the bird to live
amid the arid wastes which were its chosen haunts. We now know what its
real use is. Visitors to the Natural History Museum in London will find,
beautifully mounted, a male bustard "in the act of showing off," as it is
called, and hard by a dissection of the head and neck, showing this
wonderful wind-bag.
CRANES.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
COMMON CRANE.
The note of the crane is sonorous and trumpet-like.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green._
WATTLED CRANE.
So called from the pendent lappets of the throat. It is a South African
species.]
One of the most beautiful of this group of peculiarly handsome birds was
once numbered among British birds; now, alas! like the bustard, it is one
of the rarest visitors. Till the end of the sixteenth century the COMMON
CRANE reared its young in the fen-lands. In Saxon times we read of a
request being made by King Ethelbert to Boniface, Bishop of Mayence,
begging him to send over two falcons suitable for flying at the cranes in
Kent. In one case, at a feast given by Archbishop Neville in the reign of
Edward IV., as many as 204 cranes figured in the menu. Later, it is
interesting to note, they seem to have fallen somewhat into disfavour,
since we read of a Dr. Muffet, of Wiltshire, somewhere about 1570,
declaring cranes to be "distinctly unfit for sound men's tables.... Yet
being young, killed with a goshawk, and hanged two or three days by the
heels, eaten with hot gelentine, and drowned in sack, it is permitted unto
indifferent stomachs."
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
SERIEMA.
A South American bird, at one time supposed to be related to the birds of
prey.]
The nest is placed on the ground, and contains from two to three eggs. The
young are covered with down, and, like plovers and bustards, run as soon as
hatched.
The cranes, like many other birds, notably some of the Plover Tribe,
occasionally indulge in spirited outbursts of dancing. Mr. Nelson, writing
of the birds of Alaska, tells how one day he was watching two cranes
enjoying themselves in this manner. The male suddenly "wheeled his back
towards the female and made a low bow, his head nearly touching the ground,
and ending by a quick leap into the air. Another pirouette brought him
facing his charmer, whom he greeted with a still deeper bow, his wings
meanwhile hanging loosely by his side. She replied by an answering bow and
hop, and then each tried to outdo the other in a series of spasmodic hops
and starts, mixed with a set of comically grave and ceremonious bows."
Cranes vary much in general appearance. Some species have much of the skin
round the head bare and brilliantly coloured, such as the SARUS CRANE of
India and the CROWNED CRANE.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S._] [_North Finchley._
WHITE-BACKED TRUMPETERS.
The trumpeters are very aberrant members of the Crane Tribe.]
The WHITE and WHOOPING CRANES are birds of wondrous beauty. The first-named
species has been not inaptly called the "lily of birds." The whole plumage,
with the exception of the black quills, is white. The legs are red, as is
also the face. Dr. Coues, an American ornithologist of great repute,
relates how he once mistook one of these birds--the WHOOPING-CRANE--for an
antelope. He and a companion saw what they "took to be an antelope standing
quietly feeding, with his broad white stern toward us, and only about 500
yards off. We attempted for at least fifteen minutes to 'flag' the creature
up to us, waving a handkerchief on a ramrod.... This proving unavailing, my
friend proceeded to stalk the game, and crawled on his belly for about half
the distance before the 'antelope' unfolded his broad black-tipped wings
and flapped off, revealed at length as a whooping (white) crane."
[Illustration: _Photo by W. F. Piggott_] [_Leighton Buzzard._
GREAT CRESTED GREBE.
Young grebes in down are beautifully striped.]
Another very remarkable species is the CROWNED CRANE. This is an African
species, and takes its name from the tuft of curiously modified feathers on
the top of the head. The coloured plate gives a good idea of its general
appearance.
THE SERIEMA.
This is a very hawklike-looking bird; indeed, by some ornithologists it has
been regarded as closely allied to the Hawks and Eagles, and more
especially to the Secretary-bird (page 467). Really, however, it is a very
ancient kind of crane.
The TRUMPETERS, the COURLANS, the KAGU, and the SUN-BITTERN are other
ornithological puzzles. Concerning the precise affinities of these birds
much is yet to be learnt; they are, however, undoubtedly related to the
Cranes. The last mentioned is a small bird, with wonderfully beautiful
wings, which it displays with great effect to its mate during the
courting-season.
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