The Living Animals of the World, Volume II: Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fishes, Jointed Animals, Molluscs, etc.

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green.

MANCHURIAN CRANE.

The piebald plumage of this species is distinctive.

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 its haunts.' We now know what

Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.]

COMMON CRANE.

The note of the crane is sonorous and trumpet-like

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. One of the most beautiful of this group of peculiarly handsome birds was once numbered among ! like the bustard, it is one of British birds; now, alas 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 Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co., Parson's Green. him to send over two falcons suitable for flying at the WATTLED CRANE. cranes in Kent. In one case, at a feast given by Arch-of the throat. It is lappets So called from the pendent African bishop Neville in the reign of Edward IV., as many as species. a South

Bustards and Cranes 42?

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, for sounddeclaring cranes to be " distinctly unfit 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." 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 Photo l/y Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green. themselves in this manner. The male suddenly SEEIEMA. " wheeled his back towards the female and A South American bird, at one time supposed to be related to the made a low bow, his head nearly touching the birds of prey. 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.

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 Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.~] North Finchley. proceeded to stalk the game, WHITE-BACKED TRUMPETERS. and crawled on his belly for about half the distance before The trumpeters are very aberrant members of the Crane Tribe.

of the World The Living Animals428

the 'antelope' unfolded his broad black-tipped wings and flapped off, revealed at length as a whooping (white) crane." 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 a good idea of its general appearance. plate gives

THE SEKIEMA.

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

Photo by Y.r. F. Piggotf] [Leighton Buzzard. puzzles. Concerning the precise affinities of these GREAT CRESTED GREBE. birds much is yet to be learnt; they are, how-

Yonng grebes in down are beautifully striped. ever, undoubtedly related to the Cranes. The last mentioned is a small bird, with wonderfully beautiful wings, which it displays with great pffect to its mate during the courting-season.

CHAPTER VI.

GREBES AND DIVERS, PENGUINS, AND TUBE-NOSED BIRDS.

THE GREBES AND DIVERS.

Grebes and Divers j are representatives of an exceedingly ancient type, and are in many ways besides very interesting. Both are common British birds. The greater part of their lives is spent upon the water, and to suit this aquatic existence their bodies are specially modified. One of the principal features of this modification is seen in the position of the legs. These, by a shortening of the thigh-bones in the grebes, leave the body so far back that when the bird walks the body is held vertically. With the divers walking has become an impossibility, and they can only move on land on their bellies, pushing Photo by W. F. Piggott] themselves along with the BLACK-THROATED DIVERS. in Scotland. feet. Both grebes and divers These very handsome birds breed

Photo by G. W. U'ilson & Co., Ltd.]

ROCK-HOPPEE PENGUIN.

The name Rock-hopper is eiven in allusion to the habit of hopping over boulders of rock. 429

are expert swimmers, and dive with the greatest ease, remaining long under water. The grebes haunt ponds, lakes, and broads; the divers prefer the open sea. Both feed on fish.

GREBES. Of the numerous species of grebe, the most familiar are the (TREAT CRESTED GREBE and the little DABCHICK. The former has suffered grievous persecution for the sake of its beautiful breast-feathers, which Fashion decreed should be worn by the gentler sex in the form of muffs or hats. Thus a price was set upon the head of this beautiful and harmless bird, and its ranks were speedily thinned. Some species wear during the nesting-season beautiful chestnut or golden " " " frills " on the head and ears," horns," or neck. The EARED GREBE is especially magnificent at this time.

DIVERS.

These, as already remarked, are sea-loving birds, but they breed inland on the shores of lakes. There are not many species of divers, but, like the grebes, they assume a special dress during the nesting-season, more beautiful than the winter dress.

THE PENGUINS.

THE PENGUINS may justly be called wonderful birds, and they are undoubtedly of very ancient descent. For countless generations the sea has been their home and refuge, and,, in consequence, flight has been abandonedjhl ex-

.change for increased swimmmg-poweigs^ 'which Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regents have been gained by transformingV'the wing BLACK-FOOTED PENGUIN. into a paddle. This transformation has resulted This bird, also known as the Cape or Jackass-penguin, breeds in burrows or under ledges of rock. in flattening the wing-bones and so increasing the surface of the hand and arm whilst reducing its thickness and the suppression of the quill-feathers. The result is a blade-like paddle closely resembling the paddle of the whale, the turtle, or the extinct fish-lizards. With this organ they cleave their way through the water, often far below the surface, in pursuit of food, just as of old their ancestors did through the air. In other diving-birds the wings are kept closely pressed to the side of the body when under water, whilst the locomotion is effected by the feet. The penguin's legs, in consequence of diminished use, have shortened considerably. But besides the wings and legs, the feathery covering has also undergone a certain amount of change. This has been effected by increasing the size of the shaft of the feather and diminishing the vane; as a result, on the front part of the wings these feathers look more like scales than feathers.

Professor Moseley has vividly described the appearance of a flock of penguins at sea. He I was astonished at seeing awrites from Tristan d'Acunha: " As we approached the shore,

Grebes and Divers, Penguins, and Tube^nosed Birds 431

...shoal of what looked like extremely active, very small porpoises or dolphins. They showed ... towards theblack above and white beneath, and came along in a shoal of fifty or more shore at a rapid pace, by a series of successive leaps out of the water and leaps into it again.... Splash, splash, went this marvellous shoal of animals, till they went splash through the surf on to the black, stony beach, and then struggled and jumped up amongst the boulders and revealed themselves as wet and dripping penguins."

Like their relatives in other parts of the world, penguins breed in huge communities known "as rookeries," a rookery being peopled by tens of thousands. Their nests, made of small stones, are placed among the tall grass and reached by beaten pathways, exceedingly difficult to walk through. Professor Moseley thus describes a " rookery ": " At first you try to avoid the nests, but soon find that impossible; then, maddened almost by the pain [for they bite furiously at the legs], stench, and noise, you have recourse to brutality. Thump, thump, goes your stick, and at each blow down goes a bird. Thud, thud, you hear from the men behind you as they kick the birds right and left off the nests; and so you go for a bit thump, smash, whack, thud, ' caa, caa, urr, urr,' and the path behind you is strewn with the dead and dying and bleeding. Of course, it is horribly cruel thus to kill whole families of innocent birds, but it is absolutely necessary. One must cross the rookeries in order to explore the island at all, and collect the plants, or survey the coasts from the heights."