50 Monograph of the Oranes. 



the meBS tent utterly fearless of dog or man, and having the entree at all meal hours to 

 the crumbs that fell from the well-spread table. 



^ The Sarrus is monogamous, and the pair, onoe united, separate no more till death 

 them do part. Such, indeed, is the affection and constancy of these noble birds to each 

 other, as well as towards their young, that throughout India it is considered by both 

 Hindoos and Mahomedans almost a crime to destroy them ; and, indeed, I doubt 

 whether an English sportsman, even of the most unsentimental kind, after killing one 

 of a pair, or of the little family group, would have the heart ever to repeat the experi- 

 ment, so grievous are the cries raised by the unhappy survivors. On one occasion at 

 Keyra, in Singbhoom, one of my party having shot a female near the camp, I was 

 distressed throughout the night by hearing the wailing trumpet tones of the bereaved 

 male, fruitlessly calling for the dead ; and that night I mentally resolved never, as far 

 as in me lay, to dissolve, or allow to be dissolved, the partnership of these gentle birds 

 again. 



The young sarrus is easily tamed, and soon becomes troublesomely familiar. In lieu 

 of the loud clanging cry of the adult, it has a querulous whistling note, a kind of long 

 trill, which when expecting food it is constantly repeating. As it grows up it becomes 

 rather an inconvenient pet, pecking children and gobbling up young ducks and 

 chickens. In confinement it eats almost anything, and in its wild state frogs, reptiles, 

 worms, locusts, grubs, rice and wheat when in the ear, and the tender shoots of grasses. 

 A young bird is excellent eating, tender and juicy, and the egg a great delicacy, one 

 being as much as a hearty breakfast-eater can dispose of. 



The vernacular names of this species are stated by Col. Tickell as 

 follows : It is the " Sarrus" or " Surhuns " of the Hindustanies, " Gyogya" ^ 

 of the Burmese, " Hoor " of the Lurka Koles of Singbhoom, " Kr^o " of 

 the Takings, and " Akroo " of the Karens. By the English in India it is 

 indifferently termed Syrus, Sarrus, or Saras Crane. 



Subsequently to the publication of Mr. Blyth's definition of the two 

 species of Saras crane Col. Tickell stated : 



I have been much interested in Blyth's paper on the different species of the 

 Sarrus group of Qruidce, especially as the fact of there being two species in India, as 

 alleged by him — viz., O. eollaris and 0. antigone — is quite new to me, and, I suspect, 

 to most if not all of those who have given the ornithology of that country their 

 attention. 



The oversight has been caused probably by the repugnance which is usually felt to 

 destroy these great harmless birds, which are generally seen in couples striding about 

 the fields in faithful companionship, not to be severed without the distressing 

 lamentations of the survivor. It is easy, therefore, to understand that two species 

 might exist and be equally common, and yet might be taken for one, the difference 

 between them being too small to be perceived at a distance. 



Nevertheless, it is singular that a Sarrus with a " white nuchal collar " has never 

 yet, to my knowledge, been described as existing in India. I have closely examined 

 sarruses dead and alive, in various parts of India — on the Nepal frontier, in Tirhoot, 

 near Fatna, Bhagulpoor, Bajmahal, Malda, Bankoora, Ghota Nagpoor, Singbhoom, and 

 near Sumbhnlpoor, also in Arakan and Tenasserim — and never met with an individual 

 with a white collar. 



Jerdon gives it a " whitish-grey " neck below the " white " auriculars, and makes 

 no mention of the smooth nude pale orange collar intervenine; between the crimson 

 papillons skin of the face and throat, and the feathered part of the neck. So that if 

 Jerdon describes it correctly (as Blyth states), he refers to a sarrus different to any I 

 have seen. Have we then three species in India P 



