9i



The appearance of the young was (except for the greater

size) very much that of a young Green Plover, viz., a dark buff

on the back shading off to cream colour, and with black or very

dark brown markings. From the first few hours they followed

the old birds all over the field just as chicks do their mother,

but with this difference, that every scrap of food was, in the

case of the Cranes, collected by the old bird and placed with

the bill into the gaping mouth of the young. In this waj' they

traversed the whole park, every moment collecting some insect

and with it supplying the wants of the young birds running

beside them. The difficulty, which I had foreseen from the first,

would be to provide a sufficient supply of insect food to main¬

tain the whole family. To assist this matter I imported ants’

eggs in numbers, but the old Cranes seemed afraid of the ants

among the eggs, and did not use them as I had hoped. We also

gave them scalded meal mixed with egg, and in fact all forms of

Pheasant food ; but though the old Cranes would, under ordinary

circumstances, gorge themselves with such diet, they only used

it sparingly with the young birds. One of these, always weakly,

added to its troubles by walking into the pond, unwatched by

the parent that was also its guardian (for each one of these

interesting birds took charge all the time of one chick, and

devoted all its energies to the maintenance of its section). On

the third day this weakly chick died ; but its brother went on so

bravely and strong that we all thought the trouble was over, and

that for the first time on record the Demoiselle Crane would be

reared in confinement.


But on about the tenth day he suddenly failed—from no

evident cause, and without previous drooping. And by night¬

fall he was dead, but not before the interesting family group

had been immortalised by the aid of the camera ( a ).


The difficulty no doubt was the insufficiency of proper

food—insect food as it ought to be ; unless a better plan would be

to risk an enclosure of the birds while incubating and giving

them abundance of custard, meal, and such food as they them¬

selves love, on which to bring up their young without seeking

to find their natural food by roaming all day. But would this

answer for the young birds ? And, failing this, how can I

supplement the insect life of the soil so as to provide what

evidently failed this year ? It would probably answer better if

this could be done; and, moreover, nothing could be more



{a). We have received a charming' photo from the Author, which we hope to get

reproduced for au early number of the Magazine.—O. E. C.



