GRUS COMMUNIS. 251 



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 Casas Viejas, as they 

 have almost done in the marisma 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 civilization ; and soon it will come to nothing 

 but Dorking Fowls and domestic Pheasants. 



These Andalucian-breeding Cranes are very largely 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 llth of that month, in 1874, Mr. Stark 

 and myself had the pleasure of seeing them on passage ; and a 

 grand and extraordinary sight it was, as flock after flock passed 

 over at a height of about two hundred yards some in single line, 

 some in a V-shape, others in a Y-formation, all from time to time 

 trumpeting loudly. We watched them for about an hour as they 

 passed, during which time we calculated that at least four 

 thousand must have flown by. This was early in the morning, 

 and we were obliged to continue our journey ; but when we lost 

 sight of the vega of Casas Viejas, over which the Cranes were 

 passing in a due northerly direction, there appeared to be no 

 diminution in their number, and, as my friend remarked, " One 

 would not have believed there were so many Cranes in all 

 Europe." These birds must have crossed the Straits from Africa 

 that morning, the place over which we saw them passing being 

 not twenty miles in a direct line from Tarifa, and a line drawn 



