The Art of “ Marking ” 113 
conclusion that these birds must have a nest and that the eggs 
must be but slightly incubated or they would not have been absent 
for so long. 
After taking a most careful bearing of the spot where the 
bird had become lost to view, not only on a grey stone nigh 
two miles off on the far side of the marsh but on a rocky patch 
in the sierra twenty miles beyond, I mounted my horse and 
proceeded to ride the line. Upon descending into the marsh 
and entering the reed-beds, I at once lost sight of my guiding 
stone ahead. Luckily, the mark in the sierra stood me in good 
stead and enabled me to keep to my alignment. And here I must 
digress for a moment to explain a technical point of no small import 
ae 
in this matter of ‘‘marking.” When a sportsman or naturalist 
marks the position of a bird or other object, the first and 
principal thing of course is to ensure that not only is a correct 
alignment taken from the point of observation but that this align- 
ment is carefully adhered to during the subsequent advance towards 
the desired point. But this is only half the battle and provides for 
direction only, the other essential factor for a correct solution of the 
problem being that of the distance to be traversed to reach the 
objective. This in the case of the sportsman is usually 30 to 
50 yards or at most, with a wounded and dropping bird, 100 
or 200 yards and at these short distances it is usually easy enough 
to identify some tuft of rushes, bush or what-not. But in the 
case of the Cranes the problem of distances was infinitely more 
complex. To begin with, the distance was very great, so great 
that save with a telescope it was impossible to see the birds at 
all, since only their heads showed above the reeds, or to attempt 
to identify the point they were at. Added to this, the vast extent 
of reeds presented to the eye a sea of grey green, ever changing 
in colour and shade according as the sunlight played upon its 
wind-swept undulating surface. No matter how carefully one may 
8 
