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“sent the man back with it sharp. As he approached the female ran off, but she must have seen what he was at, for 
“before (having gently laid the egg in the disordered nest, which he smoothed a little) he could get off the island the 
“female was down upon the egg, sitting as if nothing had liappened, but uttering a low chuckling sound such as I had 
“never heard before. But the real joke was to see the male, the moment he had perceived that the coast was clear and 
“ that his mate was again sitting, he came back to the nest and i^araded round and round, his wings extended, his head 
“in the air, trumpeting loudly, clearly wishing her to believe that it was all his doing. 
“I have heard many stories of tliese birds showing fight in defence of their penates^ but this was the nearest 
“approach to anything of the kind I ever witnessed, and as a rule both birds run away directly you get within twenty 
“yards of the nest. 
“With dogs it is different, and I have seen a large water retriever so buffeted and scratched, and cut in two 
“minutes, that he was fain to make off at Ins best pace howling and yelping, and I have no doubt that foxes and jackals 
“would fare equally ill.” 
I find no exact information about the time of incubation of this Crane, but think it probable 30 days will be 
about the duration of it. 
The young chicks are more or less shak}^ on their legs during the first dajr or two and are most tender!}' nursed 
and fed by the parents who present the young birds with every small thing they think suitable for food. The chicks grow 
very fast and when half grown are still fed by the parents although they certainly at that time feed themselves as well. 
The young birds remain with their parents until the following March by which time they are quite capable to look out 
for themselves. 
The Collared Crane is not a migratory bird but a permanent resident in the places which It frequents. However, 
during the cold dry season old and young birds often collect in flocks, and Adam saw as many as thirty young and old 
feeding together in the Sambhur Lake di.strict, in Rajputana, Even in these flocks the families, consisting of male and female 
with their young ones, constantly keep together, and the gatherings are more to be attributed to the fact that the birds 
are driven by drought from their usual haunts and resort to the only places where water is to be found and thus neces¬ 
sarily come together, than to any social instinct. 
During the dry weather the birds also appear in the Deccan in flocks, according to Sykes, and in all parts of 
India, where they are found only occasionally, it is always during the drought. 
The Zoological Gardens of Amsterdam received their first specimen of this Crane in 1850. According to the List 
of the Animals of the Zoological Society of London their first specimen of the Collared Crane was acquired in March 
1877. In France, as recorded by Buffon, Madame de Bandeville had a living specimen of this Crane in the middle of 
the 18th century. At the present time Collared Cranes are constantly exhibited in the different Zoological Gardens of 
Europe. In the Amsterdam Zoological Gardens for example they live for years, keeping always in splendid condition. This 
good condition is necessary to make evident their specific difference from Grus antigone, as it is only in fully adult, 
perfect and clean-feathered birds of this species that all the characters, that is, the thick black beard of the male, the 
white neck-collar and the light tertiaries are conspicuous. 
This bird is said to have bred in confinement in India but I have no evidence of this having happened in Europe. 
The trachea of this species closely resembles the one of Gras antigone. 
