THE SARUS. 7 
The nest is a huge heap, a broad truncated cone, composed 
of reeds and rushes and straw, varying much in size according 
to situation and circumstances, At top it is about two feet in 
diameter, with a central depression from four to eight inches 
deep for the eggs. If, as is commonly the case, the nest is 
placed in water, the bottom of the egg cavity will be from 
eight to twelve inches above the surface of the water, and 
there may be six inches to two feet of nest below water. On 
more than one occasion, when in sudden and heavy falls, such 
as we get in India, six and eight inches of rain falling within 
twelve hours, the jhils were rising very rapidly, I have seen 
the birds very busy raising their nests. One nest that had thus 
been raised, I measured a couple of months later, when the 
ground on which it stood was dry, and found it to be fully nine 
feet in diameter at base, and three feet in height, and it must 
have lost at least a foot by settling. When built on land, sur- 
rounded, but not overflowed with water, the nest is a much less 
pretentious affair, perhaps five feet in diameter at base and a 
foot only in height. Occasionally, apparently where they could 
not get alarge enough piece of water to secure, as they consi- 
dered, their safety, I have found them seeking this in concealment. 
As a rule, the nest is out in the open, visible from all directions 
at a mile’s distance. In the few cases to which I refer I have 
found it in dense beds of bulrush and reed so lofty that, even 
when standing on its nest, the bird was only to be seen by 
climbing a neighbouring tree. In these cases the rushes and 
reeds, where they were thickest, had been bent and trampled 
down across and across, so as to form a platform five or six 
feet in diameter, and on this a comparatively slight nest had 
been constructed. | 
Two is certainly the normal number of eggs, but I have 
twice (out of more than one hundred nests) found three, and 
I have also occasionally seen three young birds in company 
with an old pair. 
I remember one day, as I was coming home from Rahun, I 
saw in a sheet of rain-water, some distance off the road, a Sarus 
sitting on her nest, and the male standing beside her. I rode 
as near the place as I could, and then sent my syce to get the 
eggs, As he commenced wading towards the nest, the male 
began to dance about, flapping his wings and trumpeting most 
bravely ; but when the man got within a few yards and landed 
safely on the patch of dry ground on which the nest rested, 
the male put his head down and ran off very crest-fallen to a 
ridge inthe water some fifty yards distant, whence he began, 
with loud cries, to encourage his lady not to allow “that black 
rascal” to take any liberties. She sat quite still, neither moved 
nor cried, only as the man came close to her made such vigor- 
ous pokes and drives at him that he got frightened and was 
picking up a great dry branch to strike her with, when I called 
