Introduction. 7 



Mr. Bartlettj which was bred in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, 

 but he does not describe the egg. 



Near the middle of May a pair of these birds formed a rude nest of dry rushes-Tin 

 the ground, and soon afterwards two eggs were laid. The parent birds took turns 

 upon these eggs during the time of incubation. On the 24tla of June a young crane 

 was hatched, the period of incubation having been thirty days. The young bird was 

 well covered with down of a light brown or fawn oolour/with darker markings on the 

 back ; it was short on its legs, and the bill also appeared short ; in fact, it appeared less 

 like a crane than I expected to see it. It was able to walk about as soon as it was 

 hatched, but appeared feeble, and now and then fell, or rolled over, in its attempts 

 to follow its parents. The old birds attended to the young one with much care, and 

 furiously attacked everything that came near the place ; they collected worms, beetles, 

 &o., from all parts of their inclosure, which tbey brought in their bills towards the 

 young birds, and after mutilating all living food they would hold it near the young 

 bird, who would advance and pick it from their bills, or from the ground as soon as 

 it was dropped by them. The young crane never opens its month and cries for food 

 like the storks and herons and many other young birds, but utters a rather loud note, 

 like peep, peep, peep, not unlike the chick of a common fowl ; it is not, however, as 

 adroit and able to obtain its food as the young of the gallinaceous birds generally are, 

 and consequently the parent birds are for more attentive, and watch every opportunity 

 of obtaining food and preparing it for the young one. I have frequently seen the old 

 birds offer a piece of biscuit (that the young bird found was too large to swallow), and 

 they then would place it on the ground, and by repeated blows break it up in small 

 pieces, and then drop these close to the young bird, who would pick them up and 



swallow them Perhaps the most remarkable thing is the rapid growth of the 



young crane, which is very surprising. As I have before stated, at first the legs are 

 short — in fact, as compared with the parents, the bird is remarkably small, and few 

 persons would guess what it possibly could be ; in a few days, however, the legs begin 

 to grow rapidly, and the neck and bill become elongated, the bird quickly appearing 

 like a crane in shape. 



This excellent account recalls most vividly to mind what I remember to 

 have seen of the rearing of young Saras cranes in India, and how savage 

 were the parent birds until the young had attained considerable growth. 

 In the Saras chick it is remarkable that, while the general colouring is 

 slightly brownish grey, that portion of the neck which is bare and crimson 

 in the adult is in the young conspicuously indicated by a ferruginous 

 colouring of the down or downy feathers with which it is then clad. As the 

 bird grows older the same is still observable, and it is likewise noticeable in 

 other species of the genus, as the Asiatic White Crane, concerning which it 

 has been specially remarked by Mr. Hume. That close and accurate 

 observer states of G. leucogeranos, when in its winter quarters, that the 

 " watchful care and tender solicitude evinced by the old birds for their only 

 young is most noticeable. They never suffer it to stray from their ,side, and, 

 while they themselves are rarely more than thirty yards apart, and generally 

 much closer, the young, I think, is invariably somewhere between them. 

 If either bird find a particularly promising rush tuft, it will call the little 

 one to its side by a faint creaking cry, and watch its eating, every now and 



