148 Mr. R. Cosgrave,


male, who finds all food, and broods it in the most careful and

affect ionate manner.


When the second bird is strong enough to leave the nest,

the mother takes charge of it, and both parents work hard from

dawn until about eight p.m. searching every inch of ground for

grubs and insects of all kinds. It is a very pretty sight to watch

all this labour going on ; as a rule each parent takes charge of

one young with the idea, doubtless, to avoid overfeeding one of

them more than the other. About ten days old, the young begin

to take artificial food ; we give them a mixture of soaked stale

bread, scalded poultry meal, and the best English barley meal, this

is mixed into a crumbly mess, and, in addition, they have sheep’s

heart or rabbit’s flesh finely minced. They take this freely and

grow strong ; at first they are fed four times daily, which is later

reduced to two meals, morning and evening. When first hatched,

the young are funny-looking little creatures ; their absurd long,

thick legs and little body look like a boy on stilts.


During the first nine months they retain the same colour,

a uniform rufous, darker on wings and back ; then comes a slight

change until, by the time they are twelve months old, they show

a dash of white feathers on the nape and also some dull slatv

feathers on the breast and sides. They remain in this condition

until the moult sets in about August, and if the birds are healthy

and well-cared for they then change into the adult plumage,

though it is not quite perfect till after the second moult.


A young pair of these birds started house-keeping on their

own account in 1907, and it is worthy to note that, in their nest¬

ing operations, they are not easily satisfied like their parents

with a few handfuls round the eggs, but must have a good heap,

about half-a-barrow full or more, and we have known them not

to deposit their eggs for ten days after the nest was completed.


On two occasions we have been successful in rearing young

Canadians (Grus canadejisis). Unfortunately, the female and one

young were killed by a female Siberian Crane, and we have only

the two males left ; we found these cpiite as easy to rear as the

White-necks, and the parents equally as painstaking in their

devotion to the young.


Only on one occasion has the Sarus Crane nested with us ;



