THE CRANE 137 



feathers have to pass through in all that long nest- 

 ing period is enough to soil and spoil everything. 



Their food is very varied. In captivity they 

 seem as if they could, and would, eat anything, and 

 I remember once seeing one trying to swallow a 

 kid glove that had accidentally been dropped into 

 its enclosure ; possibly it thought it was some sort 

 of dried frog ! Insects, snails, frogs, and anything 

 it can get from the water, as well as seeds and 

 grasses, are its stock articles of diet. 



M. Maspero told me that in his opinion there 

 was a notable diminution of their number and of 

 the time they spend in Egypt every winter — a 

 view I also take most decidedly with my own 

 recollections of twenty-five years ago, when I saw 

 them so frequently that then they were one of the 

 commonest sights on the Nile, whilst in the 

 winters of 1907-1908 I was only once able to make 

 drawings of them on a sandbank near Minieh, and 

 saw but two or three flocks during the whole time 

 flying high in air. This is entirely owing to the 

 great increase of large steamers which, passing up 

 and down, disturb the quiet of the water. If one 

 is fortunate enough to hear them calling one to 

 another as they fly above your head, one will ever 

 afterwards be able to identify them, even though 



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