DEMOISELLE CRANE. 577 



The eggs of the Demoiselle Crane are two in number, placed side by side 

 in the nest, with the small ends pointing in the same direction ; they are 

 sometimes laid about the end of April, but more frequently during the first 

 half of May, or not until the end of that month if the season be backward. 

 They are pale buff or olive in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with 

 umber-brown and with numerous underlying markings of brownish pink. 

 On some eggs most of the spots and blotches are underlying and ill-defined ; 

 others are only sparingly marked with one or two large irregular confluent 

 blotches. The surface is rather smooth and is full of small pores, but does 

 not show much gloss. The eggs vary in length from 3'8to3'l inch, and in 

 breadth from 2'2 to 2*0 inch ; they very closely resemble those of the 

 Common Crane, but are much smaller. Both birds assist in incubation ; 

 and when one is sitting, its partner is generally not far away, standing 

 sentinel, ready to give the alarm the moment danger threatens. From 

 the wary habits of this bird, its eggs are difficult to find ; it leaves the 

 nest in a very unconcerned manner, walking for some distance, and then 

 taking wing, but always returning as soon as the intruder has disap- 

 peared. During the period of incubation the old birds are said to be very 

 pugnacious, never failing to attack an Eagle, a Harrier, or even a dog 

 that has inadvertently approached the sacred spot. The young are able 

 to follow their parents very soon after they are hatched. Only one brood 

 appears to be reared in the year. 



The Demoiselle Crane is gregarious during winter, and sometimes 

 assembles in enormous companies, several thousands not unfrequently 

 congregating together. In its winter- quarters in India this Crane is said 

 to prefer the shelving shores and sand-banks of rivers, but it also haunts 

 the banks of lakes and ponds. Hume, in the ' Game Birds of India ' 

 (in. p. 34), writes : " They feed in fields in the early mornings, come 

 down to the river or to large tanks about 9 o'clock, and spend a good 

 part of the day there, though generally paying a second visit late in the 

 afternoon to their feeding-grounds, and return to the water about sunset to 

 pass the night upon some bare, low sand-bank, whence their harsh cries 

 ceaselessly resound till they again leave, about or just before dawn. I 

 have not observed them so perpetually on the wing as Mr. Vidal, whose 

 remarks I quote below, tells us it is their habit to be in the Deccan, nor 

 have I found them one whit more wary or difficult to shoot than the 

 Common Crane. More noisy they certainly are, and the uproar that rises 

 when, after a successful drift, you have fired into one of the enormous 

 flocks, such as I have already described, is alike indescribable and, to any 

 one who has had no personal experience of it, incredible. Thousands of 

 mighty pinions, almost convulsively beating the air at the same moment, 

 and thousands of powerful windpipes, all simultaneously grating out the 

 harsh kurr-kurr-kurr, &c., some shriller, some baser, each single voice 



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