130 INDIAN SPOKTING BIEDS 



it simply means "crane"; the Mahratta name Karkuchi, the 

 Canarese Karkoncha, and the Uriya Garara, are evidently, like 

 " karkarra," an attempt at imitating the note, which in this 

 species is very harsh and grating, quite at variance with the 

 dainty grace of the bird, which well merits the name of 

 "demoiselle." 



It is a cheerful, playful bird, and in some districts spends 

 most of the day on the wing, soaring round and round in circles, 

 apparently merely for exercise. At such times it is most difficult 

 to get near, and is, generally speaking, a very wary and thoroughly 

 sporting bird. It is also excellent eating, at any rate when it 

 has had the chance of feeding on cultivated produce, to which it 

 is as partial as the common crane ; for this species also is, in its 

 winter quarters at least, by preference a vegetable feeder. A 

 favourite food is the karda or safflower seed, but it eats grain 

 freely, and thrives well on it in captivity. Young reared in 

 Europe in captivity, however, were fed by their parents on 

 insects at first. 



After feeding on land they betake themselves to the edges of 

 large tanks, and especially rivers, and roost in large flocks in 

 such places, or in open plains, with sentinels set, the roosting 

 flock breaking up into detachments with daybreak, when they 

 fly abroad for food. 



The breeding range of the demoiselle is very wide, from 

 Southern Europe eastwards all through Asia, but in temperate 

 regions always, for this species is at all times a less northern 

 bird than the common crane. The nest is on the ground, but 

 made, curiously enough, of pebbles, with which also all the 

 inequalities of the ground round about are filled in. The eggs, 

 two m number, are much like those of the common crane, but 

 smaller, and with more distinct markings on a darker ground. 



It is worth mentioning that in Southern India some sort of 

 sanctity attaches to this bird ; patches of crops are left for it 

 to feed on, and in Brahmin districts one may have serious trouble 

 for shooting one, unless feeling about such matters has altered 

 since Hume wrote a generation ago. 



