COMMON CRANE 123 



India too, it may be pointed out, for the benefit of beginners, 

 that though both are big tall grey birds, the crane may be distin- 

 guished on the ground by the long curved plumes which look 

 like a tail, but really grow on the wings, and especially on the 

 wing by the neck being extended, as well as the legs, herons 

 always drawing the neck back when they fly. 



When near at hand — which a crane is not likely to be, if 

 healthy— it will be seen that it is a much bigger bird than the 

 grey heron, nearly four feet long in fact, and has no crest 

 or breast-plumes, but a bald red patch on the head. The 

 sober grey of the whole of the body-plumage is only relieved by 

 more or less black on the ends of the wings, and by bands of 

 white along the sides of head and neck. The sexes are alike, 

 but the young of the year can be distinguished by a mixture of 

 buff in their plumage, especially on the head and neck, and their 

 less developed wing-plumes. 



The bird in the plate, by the way, is much too dark and dull 

 a grey, and has been given a well-developed hind-toe like a 

 heron's, whereas this toe is really very small and quite useless, 

 cranes, at any rate our Indian species, not being perchers like 

 herons. They are also much more sociable, being always in 

 flocks, usually ranging in number from a score in the south, 

 where the birds are nearing the limit of their range, to several 

 hundred in the Northern Provinces. This crane's southern 

 limit appears to be Travancore, and its special haunts are the 

 Northern Provinces of our Indian Empire, while it is not known 

 in Burma or Ceylon. 



These cranes may come in as early as August, in Sind, but as 

 a rule October is about the time of their arrival ; most go away in 

 March, but some may be found even in May at times. They 

 haunt open places and the vicinity of water, preferring rivers to 

 tanks, but feed much away from the water, as a large part of 

 their food while in India consists of various crops, especially 

 wheat, grain, pulse and rice, for cranes are mixed feeders, not 

 purely animal feeders like storks and herons. Early morning is 

 their chief time for raiding the fields, and they do a great deal of 

 damage, devouring not only the grains and pods of the cultivated 

 plants, but the young shoots. They will also attack sweet 



