io6 
NATURE NOTES. 
appear to be somewhat neglected by their parents, and if they 
approach too near their neighbour’s territory, get pecked and 
even killed by them. We saw this happen several times, but 
no parent bird put in an appearance to protect or avenge her 
offspring. The puzzle, however, is how any of them can 
possibly remember which is their own egg, or recognise their 
own chicken. 
G. H. P. B. 
THE MIGRATION OF A CRANE. 
[HE following extracts are taken from Slatin Pasha’s 
I exciting account * of his fighting and captivity in the 
Soudan. During his captivity at Omdurman, a town 
on the left bank of the Nile and almost immediately 
opposite Khartoum, the following event occurred (see p. 497). 
“One day, in the month of December, 1892, when I had 
just left the Khalifa’s door to take a short rest, one of the 
mulazemin summoned me to the Khalifa’s presence. I found 
him in the reception room surrounded by his Kadis, and the 
threats and reprimands which I had received on the occasion of 
Taib Haj Ali’s calumny were still fresh in my mind. I was, 
therefore, considerably dismayed when the Khalifa, without re- 
turning my salute, ordered me to take my seat amongst the 
judges. ‘ Take this thing,’ said he, after a short pause, and in a 
very severe tone, ‘ and see what it contains.’ I at once arose 
and took in both hands the object he gave me, and then sat 
down again. It consisted of a brass ring of about four centi- 
metres in diameter, attached to which was a small metal case 
about the size and shape of a revolver cartridge. An attempt 
had been made to open it, and I could plainly see that it con- 
tained a paper. This was indeed an anxious moment for me. 
Could it l3e a letter from my relations, or from the Egyptian 
Government — and had the messenger who brought it been cap- 
tured ? Whilst I was engaged in opening the case with the 
knife which had been given me, I turned over in my mind how I 
should act, and what I should say ; and, as good luck would 
have it, I had not on this occasion to have recourse to dissimu- 
lation. Pulling out two small papers, and opening them, I 
found inscribed on them, in minute but legible handwriting in 
German, French, English and Russian languages, the fol- 
lowing ; — 
“ ‘ This crane has been bred and brought up on my estate 
at Ascania Nova, in the province of Tauride, in South Russia. 
* Fire and Stvord in the Soudan, by Rudolph C. Slatin Pasha, C.R., tr.ins- 
lated by Major F. R. Wingate, C.B. (Edwin Arnold : London and New York.) 
