34 Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 



have almost as well-coloured faces and legs as the old ones that 

 are in pairs, they never seem to attain to the full weight of 

 these latter. From these facts I am disposed to infer that 

 these parties, which include individuals of both sexes, consist of 

 birds of the second year, that our birds do not either breed or 

 assume their perfect plumage till just at the close of their 

 second year, and that, like Pigeons and many others, they do 

 not attain their full weight until they have bred once at least. 



Unlike the four other species of Crane with which 1 am 

 acquainted, and which I have above mentioned, Grus leucogeranus 

 never seems to resort, during any part of the day or night, to 

 dry plains or fields in which to feed ; and, unlike them too, as 

 far as my experience goes, it is exclusively a vegetable-eater. 

 I have never found the slightest traces of insects or reptiles 

 (so common in those of the other species) in any of the twenty- 

 odd stomachs of these White Cranes that I have myself 

 examined. 



Day and night they are to be seen, if undisturbed, standing 

 in the shallow water. Asleep, they rest on one leg with the 

 head and neck somehow nestled into the back ; or they will stand 

 like marble statues, contemplating the water with curved necks, 

 not a little resembling some white Egret on a gigantic scale ; or, 

 again, we see them marching to and fro, slowly and gracefully 

 feeding amongst the low rushes. 



Other Cranes, and notably the common one and the De- 

 moiselle, daily pay visits in large numbers to our fields, where 

 they commit great havock, devouring grain of all descriptions, 

 flower-shoots, and even some kinds of vegetables. The White 

 Crane, however, seeks no such dainties, but finds its frugal food, 

 rush-seeds, bulbs, corms, and even leaves of various aquatic plants, 

 in the cool waters where it spends its whole time. 



Without preparations by me for comparison, I hardly like to 

 be too positive on this score ; but I am impressed with the idea 

 that the stomach in this species is much less muscular than in any 

 of the others with which I am acquainted. The enormous num- 

 ber of small pebbles that their stomachs contain is remarkable. 

 Out of an old male I took sufficient very nearly to fill an ordi- 

 nary-sized wine-glass, and that, too, after they had been thoroughly 



