250 GRUID.E. 



not appear to remain to nest, as I looked in vain for them in the 

 marshes there during the month of April. 



On the Spanish side some thirty to forty pairs breed in the 

 district (comprising many thousand acres) which extends from 

 Tapatanilla along the Laguna de la Janda to Vejer, and thence 

 eastward to Casas Viejas. These birds commence to lay about 

 the last week in April (but Verner records a nest with two fresh 

 eggs on the 4th of April, 1876), constructing their nests somewhat 

 like those of the Swan, of sedges, grass, and rushes. The nests 

 vary much in size, some being quite five feet across, others 

 perhaps not much more than eighteen inches : some are deep, 

 and stand high up ; others are almost level with the water, in 

 which they are always built. The nest is always placed among 

 sedges or rushes sufficiently short for the bird, when standing up, 

 to be able to see around, and is never built in tall reeds. They 

 are very easy to find, as the old birds never fly direct to the nest, 

 but alight some twenty or thirty yards away and, walking up to 

 it, form regular tracks like a cattle-path ; so by following one of 

 these tracks you may be sure of finding the nest : nor do the old 

 birds fly straight away from the nest, but walk 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, and they differ much in size and shape in different 

 nests ; but the pair in a nest are always alike in size, shape, and 

 colour, which varies from light buff to an olive-brown, sometimes 



