XXXI 

 THE LARGEST BIRD IN INDIA 



IT has always been a cause of wonder and sorrow 

 to me that the sarus crane {Grus antigone) 

 does not occur in the neighbourhood of Madras, 

 or indeed in South India at all. The tropical 

 portion of the Indian peninsula, with its millions 

 of acres of green paddy, should be a paradise 

 for cranes ; yet not one of these fine birds is likely 

 to be found south of the Godavery, or, at any rate, 

 of the Kistna. There is presumably some good reason 

 for this, but that reason has yet to be discovered. 



The sarus might well be called the Indian crane, 

 for it is one of the most characteristic and beautiful 

 birds of Northern India ; moreover, it appears to 

 be found nowhere outsid^ India. Saruses occur in 

 Burma, but the Burmese birds have fallen into the 

 hands of the ornithological systematist, and he has, 

 of course, made a separate species of them. The sarus 

 from Burma is now known in the scientific world 

 as Grus sharpii — not because very sharp eyes are 

 necessary in order to distinguish him from the Indian 

 form ! 

 The plumage of the sarus is a beautiful shade of 



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