My Birds at Brinsop Court.



255



of which are a nuisance. A stranger on walking by them would

think for the first minute or two, “ What charmingly tame birds ! ”

for these two would walk forward, marching sedately by that

stranger’s side for some few paces. Naturally the stranger stops to

speak to them. The two Cranes put their heads together (literally),

hold converse of low guttural sounds, and are apparently saying

Not quite the society we are accustomed to my dear,” and then

without another word of warning they are at one, tooth and nail,

and I prefer the former to the latter, for their claws are uncommonly

sharp and have a slight hook to them, and they do really claw, and

must I think be incarcerated. More unprovoked and vicious attacks

than they make I never witnessed.


The first time it happened was when I stooped down with a

bowl of melox to lay at their feet, whereupon I felt a sharp blow on

my hatless head, the male Crowned Crane having jumped on it. I

had a sore arm for several days where one of his talons had caught

me.


“ What horrible birds you do keep,” a guest said, and really

not without reason in that instance! The cry of these Crowned

Cranes is not musical, it is monotonous and tuneless ; when all four

join in the chorus it sounds like two or three motor cars, or

“ Har- hux, Har-hux, Har -hux ” ; none of that wild-sounding

“ kr-r-ar ” of European, Manchurian and other Cranes. No doubt

at a little distance, which does often lend enchantment, the cries of

a large company of Crowned Cranes on the shores of some African

lake, sound better.


And these Cranes, though they can be gentle, have an ex¬

pression of exceeding fierceness in their eyes of pale straw colour

with the hard-looking and small dark centres.


(To be continued).



GARDEN FRIENDS.


By Miss Ethel Chawner.


Birds have been cherished in this garden for the last twenty

years, and it may interest some of our members to hear about them,

though there is nothing at all remarkable to record.


Our chief friendships are with Robins, Tits and Chaffinches,.



