6 Monograph of the Cranes. 



Asiatic White Crane (as observed by him in its winter quarters) that " they 

 never appear to have more than one young one with them ; but it does not 

 at all follow," he adds, " that they do not lay more than one egg. Our 

 commonest Indian crane ((?. antigone), which usually lays two, and some- 

 times, though rarely, three eggs, and which has no long or arduous journey 

 to perform, seldom succeeds in rearing more than a single young one." He 

 further adds that, of more than a hundred pairs of G. leiKogeranos, which he 

 had observed (from first to last), while in their winter quarters, he had 

 not seen any accompanied by more than a single offspring. Mr. Meves 

 informed Mr. Dresser that he had known instances of three eggs of 

 G. communis being found in the same nest. In the " Contributions to 

 Ornithology," edited by Sir W. Jardine, Bart., two eggs of the Saras 

 Crane are figured, of a very pale blue or bluish-white, scantily speckled 

 over with small spots and groups of spots of a reddish-brown colour. 

 Those of the Australian species (or " native companion," as it is usually 

 styled) are described by Mr. Gould as being " of a cream colour, blotched 

 all over, particularly at the large end, with chesnut and purplish brown, 

 the latter colour appearing as if below the surface of the shell." The egg 

 of the Common Crane [G. communis) is figured in Hewitson's " Eggs of 

 British Birds " of a pale olive-brown, with dull red spots and blotches ; and 

 the nesting of this species is illustrated in the " Ootheca WoUeyana " 

 (tab. B.), edited by Professor Newton. In the " Fauna Boreali- Americana " 

 we find the eggs of the American White Crane [G. americana) described 

 as being Hke those of the Saras. The egg of the true Sandhill Crane 

 (6f. Canadensis) is described to be of a dirty white, or rather light-brown 

 colour, with reddish-brown spots, quite irregular in figure, and thinly 

 scattered over the surface :" (" United States Exploring Expedition," 

 p. 295.) 



The eggs of the Demoiselle (6f. vi/rgo) " are very similar to though 

 smaller and more elongated than those of the Common Crane " ; and Mr. 

 Layard describes those of G. carimculata as closely resembling in colouring 

 the eggs of G. virgo and of G. paradisea ; but in the crowned cranes 

 {Balearica) it would seem that the eggs are not invariably spotted. That 

 of the southern species {B. regulorum), as exemplified by a specimen sent 

 him by Mr. Ayres, is described by Canon Tristram as " white, with a 

 green lining membrane, its texture glossy, and its size about that of the 

 egg of a goose : " {Ibis, 1868, p. 256.) Dr. Bree, however, figures that 

 of B. pavonina (after Thienemann) as being of a light brown with a few 

 dark specks. 



The young are soon upon their legs [prcecoces) , but are fed by their 

 parents until they acquire strength, and indeed for a long time afterwards. 

 In the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" for 1861 (p. 369), there is 

 an elaborate account of a young Mantchurian Crane ((?. viridirostris) by 



