234



Mr. Maurice Portal



but two died of malarial fever a few months later ; three still sur¬

vive, and two of them are full-winged and are to he seen flying about

the estate, often four miles away from the house, but always return¬

ing at night to sleep, which they do, either roosting on the house

top or up in a tree. The birds at Logan do not appear to feel the

cold or suffer from frost and snow, though of course the climate there

is no doubt milder than in most parts, and the sea on' both sides of

the point tends to prevent long frosts or the snow from lying for

any length of time.


The Crowned Cranes, like most of their allies, suffer from

frost bites on their toes as a rule, and Mr. St. Quintin told me he

had known a Crane lose its toe from this. Probably the fact that

the Logan birds have full use of their wings assists to keep them

free, combined with the milder climate.


The Cranes chiefly feed themselves in summer on insects and

various grubs and seeds, but they are fed on dari and maize if they

come up for it to the house. In the Kordofan it has been noted

that the birds feed in the open early on in the day, and then fly to

the river banks and water and spend the rest of the day there, flying

off at dusk to roost in the tops of trees. In 1912—or six years after

they came — a pair made a nest near the water’s edge at the loch,

and laid three eggs of a greenish hue, devoid of any markings. The

nest was a round one, raised on rushes and reeds and not particularly

finished off; both birds helped in the incubation which lasted 30

days. One young bird hatched and was carefully guarded and fed

on insects by the old birds, but when six weeks old a weasel un¬

fortunately killed it.


When first hatched it much resembled a long-legged Pheasant

chick, but the tuft on the head was visible from the early days, the

upper parts of body brown with reddish brown markings; and under

parts light yellowish down, white patch on cheek, and legs of an

olive brown hue. In 1913 the same pair nested again, but in July,

and laid three eggs, hatching all of them, and all went well until the

end of September, when the birds died off, one after another—pro¬

bably from lack of insect life, which was very scarce last year.

Altogether very unfortunate, but one hopes Mr. McDouall will have

better luck in 1914.



