Orus leucogeranus. 43 



feathers, and have a dingy patch on the tarsus; and though before they leave us they 

 become almost as purely white, and have almost as well-coloured faces and legs as the 

 old ones that are in pairs, they never seem to attain to the full weight of these latter. 

 From these facts I am disposed to infer that these parties, which include individuals 

 of both sexes, consist of birds of the second year, that our birds do not either breed or 

 assume their perfect plumage till just at the close of the second year, and that, like 

 pigeons and many others, they do not attain their full weight until they have bred 

 once at least. 



Unlike the four other species of crane with which I am acquainted, 0. leucogeranus 

 never seems to resort, during any part of the day or night, to dry plains or fields in 

 which to feed ; and, unlike them too, it is exclusively a vegetable-eater. I have never 

 found the slightest traces of insects or reptiles (so common in those of the other 

 species) in any of the twenty odd stomachs of these White Cranes that I have myself 

 examined. Day and night they are to be seen, if undisturbed, standing in the shallow 

 water. Asleep, they rest on one leg, with the head and neck somehow nestled into the 

 back ; or they will stand like marble statues, contemplating the water with curved 

 necks, not a little resembling some White Egret on a gigantic scale ; or, again, we see 

 them marching to and fro, slowly and gracefully, feeding among the low rushes. Other 

 cranes, and notably the common one and the Demoiselle, daily pay visits in large 

 numbers to our fields, where they commit great havoc, devouring grain of all 

 descriptions, flower shoots, and even some kinds of vegetables. The White Crane, 

 however, seeks no such dainties, but finds its frugal food — rush seeds, bulbs, corms, 

 and even leaves of various aquatic plants — in the cool waters where it spends its whole 

 time. Without preparations by me for comparison, I hardly like to be too positive on 

 this score ; but I am impressed with the idea that the stomach in this species is much 

 less muscular than in any of the others with which I am acquainted. The enormous 

 number of small pebbles that .their stomachs contain is remarkable. Out of an old 

 male I took sufficient very nearly to fill an ordinary-sized wineglass, and that, too, 

 after they had been thoroughly cleaned and freed from the macerated vegetable matter 

 which clung to them. These pebbles were mostly quartz (amorphous and crystalline), 

 greenstone, and some kind of porphyritic rock ; the largest scarcely exceeded in size 

 an ordinary pea, while the majority were not bigger than large pins' heads. Perhaps, 

 in the hands of some abler mineralogist than myself, these tiny fragments (of which I 

 have a small bag full) may prove to contain as yet unnoticed mineral forms from 

 Central Asia. I have found similar pebbles in the stomachs of the Grey and 

 Demoiselle Cranes, but never in anything like such numbers as in those of the present 

 species. When shot, the White Cranes are worth nothing as food, which, considering 

 their diet here, is not surprising. 



Mr. Hume remarks that, in the instance of the cranes, the Hindu names 

 in use in his portion of Northern India clearly owe their origin to the cries 

 of the several birds. Thus Grus communis is called kooroonch, or leoonch ; 

 G, virgo, kurrhurra, and G. leucogeranus, karekhur ; " each of these names, 

 when pronounced by a native, being an appreciable imitation of the cry of 

 the particular species it seems to designate." 



According to Pallas, the Asiatic White Orane is observed throughout 

 the whole of Siberia, being also found in Dauria, in China, and Japan. 

 And Swinhoe found it in North China, Amoorland, and Japan. It 

 inhabits in summer the vast morasses of Siberia, and every part where lakes 

 abound, penetrating far north into the boggy forests about the Ischin, 

 irtisch, and Oby. 



