Photo by Ottomar Anschütz] [Berlin.
COMMON CRANE.
This handsome bird used to breed in Britain till the end of the sixteenth century.
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.