31 E. G. B. Meade-Waldo — Ornithology and Aviculture


Zoological Gardens have often nested and incubated steadily, with no

better result, and I think this Crane has not bred in cajitivity in Europe.

There is one portion of Hume's description of this bird to which I should

like to draw attention. He says that he examined over twenty

specimens (killed between October and March), and that he never

found a trace of any animal food in their stomachs. He considered it

exclusively a vegetable feeder, for he only found " rush seeds, bulbs,

conns, and even leaves of aquatic plants ", but never found remains of

fish, reptiles, or grain. But though this was the case in India and in

winter, I have seen enough of this bird to cause me to feel sure that it is

otherwise at other seasons of the year. I have found it a confirme< I egg-

stealer, and I believe that this has been the case at Lilford also. I once

haw one of my White Cranes carrying off a Great Bustard's egg, with the

contents dripping on to the ground while the disconsolate mother

followed mournfully behind the robber at a few yards distance, and I

have elsewhere in the Magazine recorded the intelligent way in which

my White Cranes stationed themselves at dusk near some high wire

netting fences and strode off when they heard the netting struck to

pick up the beetle before it could get on the wing again.


My impression is that this Crane requires at least as much animal

food in confinement as the other species. It also should, if possible,

have access to some pond or shallow stream, for it is very aquatic in

its habits.


ORNITHOLOGY AND AVICULTURE


By E. G. B. Meade- Waldo, F.Z.S.

The sciences of ornithology and aviculture are intimately con-

nected. Each has much to learn from the other. Many of the problems

of the lives of birds can only be solved through the keeping of them

in confinement. I think there are amongst ornithologists some who do

not set much reliance on the behaviour of aviary birds in such matters

as seasonal changes of plumage, the assumption of mature or breeding

plumage, periods of incubation, breeding habits, the manner of rearing

their young, etc. The skilled aviculturist can tell at once when con-

finement, diet, or environment in any way alters the natural order of

his charges' lives.



