THE LARGEST BIRD IN INDIA 199 



when they are necessary in order to enable the birds 

 to wade to the nest. Cranes, unUke storks and herons, 

 cannot grip with the foot, so that they never perch 

 in trees. The nest is built on the ground and, pre- 

 sumably for the sake of protection against jackals, 

 wolves, and such-hke creatures, is usually surrounded 

 by water. As a rule, it is not constructed on an island, 

 but is itself an islet rising from the bottom 6i the jhil 

 or tank in which it is situated. 



I have not had the good fortune to witness a nest 

 of the sarus in course of construction, but from the 

 behaviour of the owners when heavy rain falls after 

 the nest is completed, I believe that both sexes take 

 part in construction. As the nesting season is in 

 June, July, August, and September, a good deal 

 of rain usually falls while nesting operations are going 

 on. The nest is a mound or cone, composed of rushes 

 and reeds, of which the diameter is two feet at least. 

 The top of this cone, on which the eggs are placed, is 

 usually about a foot above the surface of the water. 

 Thus the eggs lie only a little above the water level ; 

 nevertheless, they always feel quite dry, as does the 

 layer of rushes on which they are placed. This is 

 rather surprising — one would expect the water to 

 get soaked up into the parts of the nest above the 

 surface ; but this does not happen. It is needless 

 to say that if the top of the nest became submerged 

 it would be impossible to keep the eggs dry ; hence, 

 when very heavy rain causes the water level round 

 the nest to rise, the parent saruses raise the top of 

 the nest by adding more material to it. 



