But, alas, and alas ! after the Crane had sat only a few days,

the eggs once more were taken. War had been waged against

Jackdaws and Rooks, which had stolen a lot of eggs laid by

different species of ducks, but yet either Jackdaws or Rooks were

the thieves on this occasion, for the shells of the two eggs were

found dropped in the grass, at some distance from the nest,

sucked clean, except for a few veins on the skin within the shell,

and with tell-tale upon the latter of the blows made by the points

of the culprits’ bills before they effected their object, and finally

gained an entrance to the contents. Surely that was the end of all

things for the first year of the twentieth century ! But in August,

about a fortnight after this last calamity, the female Australian

Crane was once more to be seen rearranging her nest, and sitting

on it. And once more this pertinaceous and prolific bird laid,

for the fourth time of asking, two eggs, quite as fine and large,

moreover, as any of their predecessors, if not more so.


The eggs are about the size of those of a Goose, of a

creamy colour, spotted and blotched, chiefly at the thicker end,

with dull red and grey. Then I hired boys to watch near by

from early morn to dewy eve, and for ten days all went well,

except that the female bird seemed to sit less steadily than

hitherto. On the tenth day came the news that the eggs had

both disappeared between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.! Culprits this time

either rats or Jackdaws, the suspicion resting upon the former;

but not the vestige of a shell was discovered. I felt as sorry for

the poor Cranes as I did for myself, and they evinced their dis¬

appointment by standing over the nest and loudly trumpeting at

intervals. Mr. Tegetmeier wrote in the Field of July 20th. last

as follows : “A series of very interesting announcements

respecting the nesting of the Australian Crane (Grus australasiana )

has appeared in the Field during the last few weeks. In the

number for June 1st. the Rev. Hubert D. Astley made the

important announcement that his Australian Cranes, known as

the Native Companion of the Colonists, had nested. . . . This is,

I believe, the first example of this species laying in Europe. . . .

It is not only of interest to record the breeding of the

Australian Crane for the first time in the Northern Hemisphere,

but it is also of considerable physiological import to be able to

record the rapid production of eggs in a creature that, had she

not been molested, would have laid only one pair during the

year.”


[The above most interesting article appeared in Country Life of

October 5th. last, and is reprinted by permission, and the illustration which

appears as our frontispiece this month was drawn by Mr. Frohawk from a

photograph by Mr. Astley, and is reproduced from the Field by the courtesy

of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier. — E d.]



