374 qeuid;e. 



sitting as if nothing had happened, but uttering a low chuckling 

 sound such as I had never heard before. But the real joke was to 

 see the male: the moment he perceived that the coast was clear 

 and that his mate was again sitting, he came back to the nest and 

 paraded round and round, his wings extended, his head in the air, 

 trumpeting a ne jMuvoir plus, clearly wishing her to believe that it 

 was all his doing. 



I have heard many stories of these birds sliowing fight in de- 

 fence of their penates, but this was the nearest approach to any- 

 thing of the kind I ever witnessed, and, as a rule, both birds run 

 aw ay directly you get within tweuty yards of the nest. 



With dogs it is different, and I have seen a large water-retriever 

 so buffeted, scratched, and cut in two minutes that he was fain to 

 make off at his best pace howling and yelping, and I have no doubt 

 that foxes or jackals would fair equally ill. 



Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks : — " The nest is built in the 

 rainy season, and is just a heap of grass and bushes completely 

 surrounded by water. I took two eggs near Bokindshahr on the 

 25th July ; the female was sitting and the male bird feeding near, 

 but neither moved away from the jheel nor showed any inclination 

 to interfere with the misappropriation of their eggs. 



" On the 2iJth August, in the Muttra District, I found one egg 

 and a young one ; and in the Aligurh District, on the 8th Septem- 

 ber, I found two fresh eggs." 



The Sams occasionally lays a second time after the nest has been 

 robbed ; and Colonel Butler notes that " a single egg, which I took 

 on the 19th September, was laid by a bird whose nest I had robbed 

 of two eggs on the 24th August, and in the same nest ; while 

 another egg that 1 took on the 23rd of September was laid in a 

 nest (not the one already referred to) out of which I had also taken 

 a single fresh egg on the 19th September." 



He further remarks : — "The Sarus Crane breeds plentifully in 

 the marshes in Guzerat between Deesa and Ahmedabad in August, 

 September, and October. 



" The hen bird when sitting leaves the nest, if disturbed, very 

 reluctantly, first of all raising her body gradually into an upright 

 position and then lowering her head almost to the ground, and 

 wallving slowly away in a half-crouching attitude until she has got 

 well away from the spot. In the breeding-season the two old 

 birds may often be seen engaged in a kind of ' nautch,' which is 

 most interesting and amusing to watch. They spread their wings 

 and lower their necks like two game-cocks about to fight, then 

 suddenly they raise themselves and commence to dance, trumpeting 

 loudly, then one or both springs high into the air, and descends to 

 perform the same absurd programme over again." 



Writing from Tonghoo Major Wardlaw Eamsaysa_ys: — "On 

 the 29th September 1876 a Burman brought me an egg and a newly 

 hatched Sarus chicken." 



Mr. Oates remarks : — " This bird is common in the vast plains 

 of Lower Pegu, and I procured one egg in August." 



