38 THE ‘DEMOISELLE CRANE. 
Mr. Theobald writes (from Collegal) :— 
“They chiefly affect cultivated rice fields, and feed on paddy: 
The Brahmins here and in Mysore consider them sacred, 
and with their usual hazy conceptions of geography say that 
they come from a high mountain near Kashi - (Benares), 
called in Sanskrit Azmovuth Parvuttum, or snowy mountain. 
Some vayats leave small patches of paddy uncut for these birds 
to feed on. A naturalist runs some risk in shooting one of 
these birds near a Brahmin village here. In the north of 
India it is, I hear, the Sarus which is considered a sacred bird, 
but not this one. The Brahmins about here confound, I 
suppose, the one with the other.” 
WE HAVE not many details of the nidification of this species 
which, however, breeds probably in Spain, and certainly in the 
Dobrudscha, the Steppes of Southern Russia, Southern Algeria, 
the countries about the Caucasus, Southern and South-Eastern 
Siberia, Dauria and Mongolia. One writer (Artzibascheff ) says 
that it “does not (near Sarepta) take the trouble to make a 
a nest, but scratches a hole in the ground in which it deposits 
about the middle of April one or two eggs.” 
Dybowski says that in Dauria “it nests on the rocky banks of 
rivers and rarely on bare mountains. Thenest is made of small 
stones fitting close to each other ; the surface of the nest is flat 
or deepening somewhat towards the centre ; it chooses sometimes 
a place which is a few inches higher than the surrounding 
ground, and fills up all the crevices and openings with stones. 
We have seen eggs in June, and till the middle of July.” 
These seem no doubt rather abnormal nests for Water Birds 
like Cranes, and Nordmann says they build nests like the 
Common Crane, but it must not be forgotten that Cranes 
are closely allied to Bustards, and that these latter lay their eggs 
on the bare ground, and that the eggs of both the Common 
Crane and the present species present a certain superficial 
resemblance to those of the Great Bustard. 
Many writers notice the dances in which this species indulges 
just prior to, or at the commencement of, the breeding season. 
We see nothing of this, of course, in India, but they appear to be 
similar to those already described of the Sarus, with this excep- 
tion, that the Sarus, keeping always in pairs and not in flocks, 
you see amongst them only two performers on the stage at once, 
while in the case of the Demoiselles you have a whole flock 
amusing themselves simultaneously. 
Von Nordmann says: “They dance and jump towards each 
other, bowing themselves in a most burlesque manner, bending 
their necks forward, extending the plumes on the neck 
and depressing their wings; others again in the meanwhile 
run races, and on arrival at the gaol, return striding along 
gravely and quietly, whilst the rest of the assembly greet them 
