42 
This noble Crane has a comparatively short history, and probably the first more or less accurate description of it 
IS to be found in Lichtenstein’s “Catalogus Rerum Naturalium Rarissimarum” issued at Hamburg in 1793. 
The breeding range of this Crane extends over the southern part of South Africa, the Zambezi, or better the 
17th parallel, forming about the most northern limit of its distribution. In the northern parts of the country named, the 
birds become rare. Over the greater part of it, however, they are scattered in pairs in suitable localities, that is where 
there is open flat country. Layard found it all the year round near Nellspoort and on the Knysna, Arnot and Fritsch 
met with it breeding near Colesberg and Butler, Feilden and Reid found it common about New Castle in Natal. On the 
west coast it was found by Andersson in the breeding season in Damara-land and Great Namaqua-land, and Buckley 
met with it generally distributed in pairs over the Transvaal. Barratt obtained eggs from Potchefstroom. Besides this, it 
is commonly found as a breeding bird, as we are informed by Holub and Pelzeln, in the Orange Free State, in West 
Griqualand, the southern Bechuana country, and the more open parts of the bushveldt of the Kalahari Desert. 
We have very little information about the breeding of this species and the reason of it is apparently that not 
much can be told about it. Like its near ally the Demoiselle Crane it is more partial to open dry plains for the con¬ 
struction of its nest than to damp swampy districts. Butler and Reid, when searching for nests of this bird in the vleys 
about New Castle, Natal, were informed by a Boer that the birds only scratch a little hole in the open veld to deposit 
their eggs in the same way as the bustards do, and that they never construct their nests in the vleys like the other 
Cranes. Mr. Ayres also informs us that they breed in dry places, and this agrees with Layard’s observations in the 
Karroo country. Sometimes, however, the high grass in the neighbourhood of pools is chosen, as Holub and Pelzeln 
inform us. I find no evidence about the duration of incubation, nor about the habits of the birds when the chicks have 
been hatched, but in this they will probably resemble the Demoiselle Crane. 
The Stanley Crane is only partially a migratory bird. In some parts of the country it is found all the year round, 
as for instance at Nellspoort and on the Knysna and in the Karroo country, but in other places such as Damara-land 
and great Namaqua-land, it only comes to breed in the wet season, leaving, when the dry weather begins, to congregate 
in some chosen place, where it often forms large flocks. Mr. Ayres informs us that the Mooi River, about ten miles above 
its junction with the Vaal River and the banks of the Vaal itself, about twenty miles below Bloemhof are favourite places 
of assembly for the bird during migration in winter. He saw them here amusing themselves by dancing and by soaring at 
an immense height, in the air. Barratt observed as many as fifty birds in one of these hibernating flocks. These assemblies 
generally sleep standing in the water in company with Crowned Cranes, Flamingoes and Storks, and Holub observed that 
they always try to reach the middle of the pool for the sake of safety, and that if the troop is numerous (as many as 
300 birds being sometimes assembled in a large pool) the voices of the birds are heard all through the night and that 
the sounds come from different parts of the flock, which fact he explains by the supposition that the vigil is kept alter¬ 
nately in every part of the flock and that the birds, whose turn it is to watch, call, and so reassure their companions 
that the watch is being properly kept. One night the experiment was made to approach a sleeping flock of these Cranes 
in a pool, but, although all possible pains were taken to come near to them unnoticed under cover of the reeds, the 
disturbance was signalled when the invaders were some fifty paces distant and soon all the birds flew away. During the 
day these flocks often mix with the herds of Springbok Antelopes, and all feed together in perfect harmony. The Cranes 
often warn the Antelopes of coming dangers, being very watchful and flying off as soon as they see anything unusual, 
when the Antelopes follow their example and run away also. The Cranes do not fly high on these occasions, seldom 
mounting into the air above a few yards. When migrating they often fly at a great height. 
These Cranes are stated to feed a great deal on locusts and in the years that locusts are abundant they become very 
useful. In the Cape colony, in West-Griqualand and the Bechuana Countries their services in the extermination of locusts are 
acknowledged and the birds are preserved accordingly as much as possible. In Zulu-land and Matabele-land this is unfortunately 
not the case and the birds are often killed there by the natives, the long inner secondaries being valued as head-ornaments. 
Besides locusts these Cranes feed on all kinds of insects, worms, reptiles, fishes and small mammals, also on 
different bulbs and other vegetable matter, animal food, however, forming the greater part of their diet. 
The voice of this Crane is guttural and although much louder than that of Anthropoides virgo has in some of its 
notes much resemblance to it. 
The Zoological Garden of Amsterdam received the first specimen of the Stanley Crane in 1851 and the Zoolo- 
gical Society of London in 1861. At an earlier date, however, birds of this species were kept in Lord Derby’s Menagerie 
at Knowsley, where in 1844 the female of a pair laid as many as seven eggs. These eggs not being laid in a nest but 
scattered all over the place, were placed in an incubator, but only one chick was hatched, which died after a few days. 
The following year five eggs were laid and placed under a hen. Two young birds were hatched, one was attacked with 
cramp after 10 days and died soon afterwards, whilst the other lived for about three weeks when it also died. The 
young birds ran about from the beginning, feeding themselves from the ground or from the hand. 
