156 EGGS OF BEITISH BIRDS. 



The shell is conspicuously pitted, almost like pig-skin, and shows 

 little gloss. The eggs vary in length from 41 to 3'5 inches, and 

 in breadth from 2'5 to 23 inches. 



THE DEMOISELLE CKANE. 



(Grus virgo.)* 

 Plate 46, Fig. 2. 



The Numidian or Demoiselle Crane must be regarded as a very 

 rare and accidental visitor to the British Islands, but a pair were 

 seen on one of the Orkney Islands on the 14th of May, 1863, 

 and one of them, which proved to be a male, was shot (Saxby, 

 ' Zoologist,' 1863, p. 8692). The summer range of the Demoiselle 

 Crane is very extensive, but the bird is only locally distributed 

 throughout the Paliearctic region, from the Mediterranean coun- 

 tries to North-western China. 



The nest is always built on the ground, often amongst growing 

 grain of some kind, or amongst tall grass in the meadows. It is 

 a very slight structure, the surrounding herbage being generally 

 trodden down and a slight hollow formed, into which are scraped 

 a few straws, and sometimes one or two small stones. 



The eggs are two in number, placed side by side in the nest, 

 with the small ends pointing in the same direction. They are 

 pale buff or olive in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with 

 umber-brown and with numerous underlying markings of brownish- 

 pink. On some eggs most of the spots and blotches "are under- 

 lying and ill-defined ; others are only sparingly marked with one 

 or two large irregular confluent blotches. The surface is rather 

 smooth and is full of small pores, but does not show much gloss. 

 The eggs vary in length from 3"8 to 31 inches, and in breadth 

 from 2'2 to 2 inches ; they very closely resemble those of the 

 Common Crane, but are much smaller. 



* Anthropoides virgo — Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 11-i. 



