Crane (bird)

The Crane (bird) is both the object of a meal and the pivot of a comic reversal in the tale of Chichibio and Currado Gianfigliazzi. One bird is brought down by Currado’s hunting bird and served with a thigh missing; the behavior of a living flock then gives Chichibio a chance to defend his lie and escape punishment.

The hunted bird

Currado brings down a young, fat crane while hunting and sends it to his Venetian cook, Chichibio, to be roasted for supper. The bird’s fate is practical and immediate: it is food prepared for Currado and his guests. As it cooks, Brunetta, a woman Chichibio loves, asks for one of its thighs. He gives it to her rather than risk displeasing her, leaving the bird incomplete when it is served.

The missing thigh and the lie

Currado notices the absent thigh and asks what became of it. Chichibio answers that cranes have only one thigh and one leg. The missing part thus changes the bird from a dish into evidence in a dispute between master and cook. Currado does not press the matter in front of his guests, but demands that Chichibio show him the truth the next morning and threatens punishment if the claim proves false.

The flock at the watercourse

At daybreak Currado takes Chichibio on horseback to a watercourse where cranes are still visible. Chichibio is frightened, but spots a dozen birds before Currado does; they are standing on one leg, as they do when asleep. He points to their posture as apparent proof that his claim was true. Currado calls out, and the birds put down their other legs before taking flight, plainly revealing that they have two.

The comic reversal

Chichibio’s explanation has failed, but he improvises again: if Currado had cried out to the cooked bird as he did to the flock, he suggests, it too would have put out its other leg. The dead bird cannot confirm or refute the joke; its missing thigh remains the material fact that began the trouble. Yet Currado’s anger gives way to laughter, and Chichibio escapes the threatened punishment. The Crane (bird) therefore serves not as an independently developed character, but as the concrete hinge of the tale’s reversal: first a prized supper, then the occasion for a falsehood, and finally the comparison that turns exposure into comic reprieve.