Egg-collecting in Asia Minor. 409 



when I had seen the Cranes, and although they were then 

 all collected together in a flock, they looked to me as if they 

 were commencing to pair, as they appeared to be restless and 

 excited, and the males were continually giving vent to their 

 loud trumpeting cry. Moreover, the Turkish hunter who 

 was with me had assured me that the Cranes remained in the 

 marshes near the salt-lake all the year round, and said he 

 had seen young ones, though he had never come across a 

 nest. 



On May 10th, 1899, the morning after my arrival at Appa, 

 1 was up at 5 a.m., and after a light breakfast went down to 

 the railway-line in a trolly which the superintendent of the 

 Aidin Railway — a hospitable German, then resident at 

 Appa — had kindly placed at my disposal. We proceeded to 

 a point close to the edge of a large extent of marsh where we 

 had seen some Cranes stalking about on our way up the line 

 from Aidin on the previous day, and it was here that the 

 men I had with me said that these birds were in the habit of 

 nesting. I was accompained by two men and three youths, 

 and we quartered the ground systematically for four hours, 

 wading backward and forward in line. The vegetation 

 growing in this salt-marsh was not reeds, but a coarse kind 

 of grass, from a foot to two feet in height. The water was 

 usually not more than ankle-deep, and never came up to my 

 knees. The mud underneath, when disturbed, emitted a very 

 strong and disagreeable stench, and the heat of the sun was 

 very great. The thermometer in our railway-carriage had 

 registered 96° in the shade with all the windows open on the 

 previous day. The heat, the flooded plain, and the foul- 

 smelling mud, all combined to call to my mind the remem- 

 brance of many a hunt I had had after Leechwe antelopes, in 

 the swamps of South Central Africa in days long gone by. 



We found several Cranes' nests ; three with two eggs each, 

 two with one egg only, and two more with nothing in them, 

 or rather on them, for they were nearly flat. I don't think the 

 young birds had been hatched out of these nests, as they were 

 quite clean, and there were no signs of egg-shells about ; but 

 one of the youths with mc found a young Crane only just 



