39 
On the 15th August Radde found the Cranes in great excitement and subdivided into larger and smaller parties, 
excursions going on all day. The following day the greater number of them had left; on the 22 nd only a few remained and 
on the 30th not a single bird was left on the Tarei-Nor. Prjevalsky saw large flocks passing over Northern Tibet in autumn 
without halting. These observations agree on the whole with those of Dr. Dybowski, who also gives the middle of August 
as the date when the birds begin to migrate: he adds, however, that some remain in Kultuk as late as the end of 
September. After having left their breeding-quarters the birds pass to the south with India as the object of their travels. 
On their way south, from Tibet, they have been observed by Prjewalsky on the i6th September, flying over Kan-su in 
a large flock, whilst captain Beavan mentions having seen them passing in that same direction over Mount Tonglu. 
As regards birds from the more western parts of Asia we get information from Scully and from Biddulph, who 
saw them fly Southward over Gilgit, Biddulph adding that the Pamir birds came down by the Hunza valley. 
It is evident from the near conformity of the dates of departure in the north and arrival at the northern limit of 
their winter-quarters, that the birds hurry on, taking little rest; but once arrived at the Himalayas they appear often to 
stay there in the valleys and to rest for a few weeks before spreading over India, where they are only seen to appear 
about the beginning of October, as observed by Butler in Northern Guzerat. In India they are spread over the greater 
part of the country, becoming rare in the extreme southern parts and being unknown along the eastern coast south of 
the 24th parallel. This Crane has also never been recorded from Burmah or anywhere east of the Brahmaputra. It is 
common in Cutch, Kathiawar and Guzerat and along the Tapti valley from Central India to the west coast, also in 
Mysore and the Nizam territory. Murray mentions its presence in Afghanistan and Beloochistan. In the central parts 
of the peninsula it is less numerous than in the north-western parts, which must be regarded as its true winter-quarters. 
Hence it extends south of the Himalayas eastwards into Assam in the Darrang district. 
Jerdon found these Cranes much more numerous in their favourite haunts than Grtis cinerea ,, being most abundant 
near large rivers. They arrive in flocks of from 30 to 500 individuals, frequenting the rivers and tanks to rest and drink, 
and the fields morning and evening to feed, chiefly on grain and other vegetable matter. Jerdon only observed them 
along the rivers, but Butler often saw the tanks in Guzerat fringed with a blue margin of these birds at least sixty yards 
wide and extending over several acres of ground, and Reid made similar observations as to their abundance, in the shal¬ 
low jheels or tanks of Lucknow. Mr. G. Vidal noticed that the first weeks after their arrival the birds spend nearly 'all 
their time on the wing, seldom, except at night, alighting on the fields. They descend usually to the river-banks to drink 
both morning and evening. At this time of the year it is almost impossible to approach them, When the crops have 
been reaped they grow less wild, and may be found feeding in the stubbles in the early morning from sunrise till 8 a. m. 
when they again take wing mostly soaring about in large circles at a great height till the evening. 
Their favourite food in the vicinity of Sattara consists of the ‘Karda’ or Saf-flower Oil-seed {Cartamus tinciorms) 
which is sown in alternate rows with linseed. They roost sometimes on bare open plains in a long single line, with 
sentinels posted on all sides, and sometimes on the banks of large tanks, congregating in vast flocks by night and 
separating into smaller parties of from twenty to a hundred birds as they go afield at early dawn. 
Mr. Vidal adds that no sort of sanctity attaches to this bird or the Common Crane in Northern India, but on 
this subject Mr. Theobald writes from Collegal in the south that “the Brahmins there 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 Himovuth Parvuthum or Snowy Mountain. Some rayahs 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 I hear it is the Sarus Crane which is considered a sacred bird but not this one. The Brahmins about here 
“confound, I suppose, the one with the other”. 
During its stay in India the Demoiselle Crane is occasionally flown at with a falcon. It is said accordino- to 
Jerdon, to make a fine flight, sometimes going two or three miles. It never uses its beak in self-defence, but is very 
apt to injure the falcon with its sharp inner claw. A well-trained falcon therefore always strikes this Crane on the back 
and never on the head. The mate of the stricken bird often turns and comes to the rescue of its companion. 
Like other Cranes this species is greatly attached to its mate, and Hodgson mentions another example of this 
virtue. He says “once having fired at a flock high over head on the plain near the Bhurtenan Railway-station, one bird 
“dropped suddenly. After the flock had gone on two or three hundred yards, a second one dashed down along with it 
“and seemed, as we ran up, to be endeavouring to rouse its lifeless mate. Despite the usual shyness of these birds, 
“this faithful comrade did not take wing till we were within twenty yards, and even then, though the rest of the flock 
“were out of sight, hung high in the air circling and calling above us for a long time”. 
These Cranes desert their winter quarters in the first half of the month of March, but some years they seem to 
leave earlier as Prjevalsky once saw a flock arrive on the Koko-Nor as early as the 28th February. Butler saw their 
departure on the 14th from Deesa in Guzerat, Davidson observed them flying northeastwards in large flocks over the 
