272 Alfred Ezra—Successful Rearing of Stanley Cranes


SUCCESSFUL REARING OF STANLEY CRANES

(TE TRAP TER TX PARABI SEA) AT FOXWARREN


PARK


By Alfred Ezra


These beautiful and graceful birds have nested with me for the

last three years, and although most of the eggs were hatched out each

time, none of the chicks lived longer than a couple of weeks. The

chicks always looked healthy and strong when hatched, but seem

to die suddenly and apparently from no disease. As these birds were

kept in the large animal enclosure the parents used to take the chicks

for long walks all day long and feed them on grasshoppers. I came

to the conclusion that it was a mistake to have the birds in such a

big enclosure. The chicks were not only walked off their legs, but

we were never able to get near enough to feed them. Last autumn

I decided to put two breeding pairs in two separate small pens in my

orchard, and these are the birds that nested and have reared their

young. One pair started sitting on two eggs on the 3rd June, and

one young one was hatched out on the 5th July. The second egg was

unfertile. Being in a small place we were able to feed the birds on

gentles, earthworms, ants’ eggs, and mash. The ants’ eggs and gentles

were covered over with some earth and the birds worked for them

and got most of the food which otherwise would have been eaten by

sparrows and other birds. After the first week the young one began

to grow visibly and by the middle of August had lost practically all

his brownish down and began to grow feathers like its parents. By

the third week of August the chick was half the size of the parents

and started growing a tail and the head assumed the white colour

of its parents. At the time of writing (7th September) the chick is

a robust bird and is practically reared, eating everything, including

wheat.


The second pair of Stanleys started sitting on 2nd May but both

eggs were unfertile and were removed on 3rd June. They laid two

more eggs and started sitting on 6th July. Two chicks were hatched

on 4th August. Both are doing splendidly and should be reared without

any difficulty.



