BY WILLIAM HAYES, CIRCA 1785

The Demoiselle crane is one of the birds Hayes drew from Robert Child's collection. He was particularly taken by the creature, writing in 1794 'This is the most pleasing bird in the Osterley collection and received the name of Demoiselle on account of its elegant form, its graceful attitudes and affected gestures'. (See Christine E. Jackson, Bird Etchings, The Illustrators and Their Books, 1655 - 1855, 1989, p.128).