143 A BIRD CALENDAR 



mentioned birds, together with some whistling 

 teal and comb-ducks, nested simultaneously. 

 After a site has been selected by a colony the 

 birds return year after year to the place for 

 nesting purposes. The majority of the eggs 

 are laid in July, the young appearing towards 

 the end of that month or early in the present 

 one. 



The nest of the sarus crane (Grus antigone) 

 is nearly always an islet some four feet in 

 diameter, which either floats in shallow water 

 or rises from the ground and projects about 

 a foot above the level of the water. The 

 nest is composed of dried rushes. It may 

 be placed in a jhil, a paddy field, or a borrow 

 pit by the railway line. A favourite place 

 is the midst of paddy cultivation in some low- 

 lying field where the water is too deep to 

 admit of the growing of rice. Two very large 

 white eggs, rarely three, are laid. This species 

 makes no attempt to conceal its nest. In the 

 course of a railway journey in August numbers 

 of incubating saruses may be seen by any 

 person who takes the trouble to look for 

 them. 



" Raoul " makes the extraordinary statement 

 that incubating sarus cranes do not sit when 



