180 GRVIDM. 
like a cattle-path ; so by following one of tliese tracks you 
may be sure of finding the nest : nor do the old birds fly 
straight away from the nest^ but Avalk off" quietly to the end 
of one of these paths and then take wing. When approached 
while sitting on the nest, the bird slips off", crouches down, 
and runs away for some yards. 
Mr. Stark watched a pair of Cranes for two or three days 
from a hill which directly overlooked a marsh where the 
process of building was being carried on ; and he informed 
me that only one bird worked at a time, the other standing 
on guard. The nests are never in very close proximity to 
each other, and never contain more than two eggs, placed 
side by side so as almost to touch, both the small ends 
pointing in the same direction. Sometimes the second egg 
is not laid until two or three days after the first. They differ 
much in size and shape in different nests ; but the pair in a 
nest are always alike in size, shape, and colour. The latter 
varies from light buff to an olive-brown, sometimes marked all 
over with brown and reddish-brown spots, generally thickest 
at the larger end ; but some eggs are almost spotless. 
These noble-looking birds are very much harassed during 
the breeding-time ; and being said, I believe correctly, not to 
lay a second time in the season after the nest has been 
robbed, they will, I am afraid, soon cease to breed near Casa 
Vieja, as they have almost done in the marismas of the 
Guadalquivir, owing to ceaseless persecution. According to 
what one hears, they used years ago to nest there in great 
numbers. However, it is the same story everywhere : all 
wild birds are in Europe certainly decreasing at their breeding- 
places, owing to egging, drainage, and what is termed civili- 
zation ; and soon it will come to nothing but Dorking Fowls 
and domestic Pheasants. 
These Andalucian-breeding Cranes are reinforced by the 
autumn migration, which arrives early in October ; and they 
then form immense bands of from two to three hundred in 
number, though generally they keep in smaller lots of from 
five to thirty or forty. Those which do not remain to nest, 
pass north in March. On the 11th of that month, in 1874, 
