GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 95 



during March and April, whilst further east where the season is 

 later, it appears at about the same time. It leaves its summer 

 quarters during September and October. Its flight is very similar 

 to that of the Common Crane, rapid, but performed with slow 

 and regular beats of the mighty wings, and the neck and legs are 

 outstretched. The note of this species is a harsh kurr-kurr- 

 kurr, and is not at all trumpet-like. The Demoiselle Crane is 

 a dweller on sandy districts, steppe country, and vast plains, but 

 it does not appear to frequent swamps during the breeding season. 

 It is always wary and watchful, seldom allowing any one to 

 approach it closely unless by stratagem or under cover of some 

 kind. It walks about the plains and round the edge of the pools 

 in a very graceful manner, and often wades into the water and 

 stands motionless with head to wind. The food of this species is 

 composed principally of vegetable substances, grain and seeds, 

 buds and shoots of herbage, insects, worms, lizards, and snakes, 

 but not apparently any fish. In some parts of India its favourite 

 food appears to be the safflower oil seed {Carthamus tindorius). 

 Whilst in its winter quarters in this country it is described as " by 

 far the most suspicious and un-get-overable bird in existence." 

 Their chief feeding time is in the morning and evening, and when 

 satiated with food they repair to some large sandbank in a river, or 

 the shallow margin of tanks and pools, where in a dense flock they 

 rest and preen their plumage. They drink regularly, and usually 

 sleep on a bare open plain ranged in a long single line, over which 

 ever- watchful sentinels keep jealous guard. The flocks of this 

 bird vary considerably in size, almost from day to day. Thus at 

 the roosting places the numbers are often large, but at daybreak 

 they separate into smaller parties to feed. Hume states that the 

 flocks of Demoiselle Cranes are constantly splitting up into 

 smaller ones and reuniting again, and that they are somewhat 

 capricious in the choice of a haunt, and rarely remain in a district 

 for many weeks together. When wounded this Crane will seek to 

 escape by trying to swim, and when brought to bay will fight 

 fiercely, although with nothing near the power of the Common 

 Crane. They are very noisy birds, and the confused uproar that 

 begins when an enormous flock of several thousands of birds has 

 been surprised and fired at, is indescribable ; the din of throbbing 



