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some time and even after they have paired and each pair has been about its business separately during the day, they still 
assemble together morning and night, to dance and fly about in company. For the place of assembly on the steppes 
they generally choose the flat banks of a river and there they form a circle or several long rows, and begin their 
extraordinary dances. After having danced sufficiently they all fly up in the air, and there continue their amusements 
slowly describing large circles. On fine calm days they are especially active at these games. After a few weeks these 
assemblies cease, the birds begin to look out for a suitable place for their nests and are only seen in pairs. 
Radde observed these same dancing parties on the Tarei-Nor, but the birds only arrived at the end of April 
beginning to nest about a month later. On the Apple Mountains he found young birds still unable to fly on the 30th July. 
The Demoiselle Crane appears to have two winter-quarters, one being Northern Africa and especially the north 
eastern part of it in the valley of the Nile, and the other the peninsula of India. It is probable that the birds from the 
Caspian and Black Sea migrate to Africa, whilst the Asiatic birds go to India. The South Russian birds leave their 
summerhaunts about the middle of September, arriving on the Blue and White Nile in that same month or in October. 
Here they were observed about that time in countless numbers by Brehm as recorded by Finsch and Hartlaub. 
It has been observed that the Cranes moult in these winter-quarters, and that the moult begins as soon as they 
have arrived. They rest and pass the night on the banks of the river or on the flat sandy islands in the midst of the 
stream, going in quest of food to the plains and cultivated fields. Their food in summer consists mostly of insects, 
worms, frogs, etc., although green-meat is not despised: in winter it is chiefly grain and vegetable matter which they 
gather in the fields. 
Von Heuglin found these birds in Berber, the western part of Taka, and over the whole of Sennaar. He did not 
meet with them south of the twelfth parallel, and doubts wheter either they or Grus cinerea ever go more to the south, 
nor is there reliable evidence to the contrary of this statement. In March they migrate back to the north, although some 
individuals have been observed as late as May by Hartmann in Northern Sennaar, and he was informed by the natives 
that some remain there all through the rainy season. Sir William H. Flower, when in Egypt, saw these Cranes in 
thousands near Aboo Girgeh in Middle Egypt migrating northwards, whilst Capt. Shelley observed a large flock on the 
2nd April near Benisouef in the north of Egypt. During their travels northwards they always seem to follow more or 
less nearly the course of the Nile as they do going southwards in September. Lord Lilford noticed a flock of thirty 
during some days about the middle of April in Cyprus, where Dr, Guillemard has also recorded their passage in that 
same month. Graf von der Mlihle has recorded their migration over Greece in September, and supposes, because he shot 
a young bird in the marshes of Negropolis, that they must breed there. This was, however, probably a bird on its 
travels southwards from the shores of the Black Sea, as the supposition of its nesting in Greece has since been proved 
not to be true. In the Dobrudscha the birds arrive in the middle of April and about the same time in Southern Russia. 
In South-western Europe we find accidental occurrences of this species in Dalmatia, in Italy, (in Corsica and Sardinia) 
in Malta, and in the Balearic Islands. In the south of Spain Irby observed it on migration going south in August and 
going north again in March, April and the early part of May. Howard Saunders saw it often in the flesh in Seville 
market, although he did not succeed in shooting one, and remarks that it is by no means rare during the winter. During 
the winter it has been observed in Marocco, and Canon Tristram saw a small flock on a salt pond in Southern Algeria 
at this season. In other parts of Europe Anthropoides virgo has been obtained occasionally as a straggler, and as many of 
the specimens imported every year and kept in Zoological Gardens frequently escape, it is by no means certain that all 
the instances recorded refer to genuine wild birds. Frivaldsky records a specimen obtained in Hungary, Temminck says 
it has occurred twice in Switzerland, Gatke records it from Heligoland in 1837, Saunders mentions the capture of a 
specimen out of a flock of three at Deerness in the Orkneys in 1863, and it has also been said to occur in Sweden 
and in Germany. Canon Tristram informs me that during his voyage in Japan in 1890 he saw unmistakable pictures of 
this bird in several Japanese temples represented in hawking scenes, and Prof. Ijima informs me that two specimens shot 
in Japan are in the Museum of Tokio taken in the province of Izu and that it has always been a rare species on migra- 
gration in the Japanese Empire. 
In Asia the greater number of Demoiselle Cranes migrate to the southern parts of that continent, passing over 
the Himalayas to India. A few of the more western birds may perhaps journey to Egypt, but this is only a matter of 
conjecture. As regards their migration in middle Asia, Radde informs us that he observed old and young birds beginning 
to try the strength of their wings on the 30th July by describing circles in the air. On the 13th August he observed their 
arrival in numerous conpanies on the Tarei Nor, always keeeping to the wedge-form in their flights. They arrived not 
only from the north but from every direction, so that it seemed probable that the Tarei-Nor is a point of assembly ot 
the birds of the whole region before the departure to the south; and this agrees with the observations of Pere David 
who says that this bird is extremely rare in the Pekin plains during migration. The birds which nest to the north of it 
evidently migrate westward to the Tarei-Nor region and assemble there before going south. 
