It was a long time ago, a very long time ago. And you can’t remember when it was. All the swamp birds gathered at the Big Lake. They got together and argued. Each one praises herself:
“I am better than all the birds on earth,” cries the marsh sandpiper, “not a single bird flies faster than me!”
- Silly! - the diving duck answers him. - Tell me, who dives better than me?
A crane came out from behind a large hummock:
- You pathetic birds, look at my long legs, and you will say that the crane is the best bird!
The forest owner heard this and made the duck become a glutton, swam with fat and became heavy, the marsh sandpiper shrank and became a small, inconspicuous bird, and the crane’s legs dried out and did not bend. That’s why the female crane hatches her chicks on a high hummock, but cannot sit anywhere else: her straight and long legs have nowhere to put them.
All the swamp birds became quiet. Only the crane became angry with the Forest Master and went to him for the truth. At this time, the Forest Master was surrounded on all sides by small birds. They asked the Forest Master:
- Help! It’s cold in winter, and it’s hard for us to fly south: our wings are small, we get tired, we fall, we die.
And as soon as the long-legged crane appeared, the forest owner laughed:
- Here, little birds, is a good heavenly deer, he will take you south...
Since then, as soon as the cranes take to the skies to fly to warm countries, they are surrounded by darkness and darkness of birds. They are in a hurry to find a better place on the long legs of the cranes. So every autumn the cranes take birds from us to the south, and in the spring they bring them back to us.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru