THE SARUS. 9 
These birds occasionally lay a second time in their nests 
after these have been robbed, and Captain Butler notes that 
“a single egg, which I took on the 19th of September, was laid 
by abird whose nest I had robbed of two eggs on the 24th of 
August, and in the same nest, while another egg that I took on 
the 23rd of September was laid in a nest (not the one already 
referred to) out of which I had also taken a single fresh egg on 
the 19th September.” 
The eggs are invariably elongated ovals, and are usually a 
good deal pointed towards one end; but long, cylindrical 
varieties, narrower and more elongated than even similar 
varieties of the Great Bustard, are not uncommon. The shell 
is very hard and strong, very rarely almost devoid of gloss, 
generally, fairly, and sometimes highly glossy. The shell is 
in most eggs pitted with small pores, set rather wide apart, 
and in some specimens very conspicuous owing to the bottoms 
of the pores being colored differently to the rest of the shell of 
the egg, and thus producing a speckled effect. Usually, however, 
the pits are only noticeable on close inspection, and not un- 
commonly they are so fine and minute as to be scarcely notice- 
able at all. 
The ground colour varies,—in some it is pure white, in some 
clear pale sea green, in others a sort of pinky cream colour, 
and numerous intermediate shades are observable. 
Some few eggs are entirely spotless and devoid of markings, 
but they are commonly more or less profusely studded with 
blotches and clouds of pale yellowish brown, purple, or purplish 
pink. Sometimes the markings are all Jarge; in others,—but 
more rarely,—they are small and speckly. As a rule, the - 
markings are, I think, most numerous at the large end. In 
some they are conspicuously so, and in some they are entirely 
confined to that part of the egg. As I noticed when speaking 
of the eggs of the Great Bustard, the eggs of this species very 
frequently exhibit pimples, warts, creases, and wrinkles; indeed, 
after examining alarge series, I should say that not one in 
twenty was entirely free from such imperfections, but of the 
hundreds of specimens that I have at one time or another taken 
of this bird’s eggs, I have never met with one anything like 
so richly coloured as those of the Common Crane (Gras com- 
munis.) 
The eggs vary excessively in size, inlength from 3°6 to 4°48, 
and in breadth from 2°35 to 2°75 ; but the average of fifty-one 
eggs is 3°96 by 2°56. 
THE MALES average larger than the females ; they measure :— 
Males—Length, 56:0 to 60'°0; expanse, 94'I to 102°0; wing, 
24'0 to 270 (to end of longest primaries, the tertiaries extend 
during the breeding season from 5 to8 inches beyond these) ; 
B 
