little above the knees show close to the hind legs ; and, as far
as possible, you always keep the beast up to his belly in water.
Thus covered you slowly sidle up towards the Cranes, making
the buffalo, now put his head up, nose in air, now stop and
lower his head to the water, and generally dawdle and meander
about with apparently no fixed idea in his head, according to
the natural manners and customs of a free and independent
buffalo. With a little practice it is easy thus to get within
shot. You softly let the cheek string go, and at once fire below
the buffalo's neck. Before your gun is well off, your sporting
companion, who has a marked distrust of Europeans and white
faces, and has been incessantly endeavouring to kick you
throughout your whole promenade, knocks you head over
heels, and rushes off towards his dusky owner, bellowing as if
he, and not 3'ou, were the injured party. This is first-rate sport ;
but, after trying it once or twice, nearly catching my death of
cold, losing a powder flask, and realizing a stock-in-trade of
bruises enough to last the rest of my natural life, I have preferred
sitting quietly on the bank and allowing my native coadjutors
to shoot the birds I wanted.
When shot they were worth nothing as food, which, considering
their purely vegetable diet, is surprising.
I ought not to omit to notice that, out of more than twenty
specimens of the White Crane that I have procured (between
October and the middle of March), none had the tertials at all
conspicuously elongated ; and in no instance did these, when
the wings were closed, exceed the tail feathers or longest primaries
(which usually reach just to the end of the tail) by more
than 3 inches. It is possible that at the breeding season the
tertials may be much more developed ; but such is not the case
with the Sarus, nor, I fancy (to judge from the magnificent
trains of plumes with which we here shoot them in the spring.)
with the Common Crane.
The feathers of the hind head and nape are somewhat lengthened,
so as to form a full and broad, though short, subcrest,
very noticeable when a wounded bird is defending itself against
dogs or other assailants. It is a brave bird, and fights to the
last, striking out powerfully, at times with bill, legs, and wings,
but most generally defending itself chiefly with its bill, with
which it inflicts, occasionally, almost serious wounds.
NOTHING absolutely seems as yet to be known of its
nidification.
IN THIS species also the males are considerably larger than
the females.
Males.—Length, 52 to 56 ; expanse, 90 to 99^5 ; wing, 23 to 26;
tail from vent, So to 9 5 ; tarsus H 'O to 1 2 0 ; bill from gape,
775 to 8'0 ; weight, 16 lbs to 19 lbs.
Females.— Length, 48'0 to 53'0 ; expanse, 83'0 to 92'0 ; wing,
22'S to 24'0 ; tail from vent, 775 to 8'25 ; tarsus, I0'5 to 11*5 ;
(one female had the tarsus only 9 0 ) ; bill from gape, 675 to
7'65 ; weight, 12-5 lbs to 16 lbs.
The legs and feet are dull pale reddish pink, (dullest in the
young), varying to dull red, somewhat brighter on the feet.
In all but quite old birds the front of the tarsus, the ridges of
the toes, and the bare portions of the tibia in front are tinged
(the first strongly, the others faintly) with dark brown, which,
on the front of the tarsus, sometimes takes the form of a black
mottling; claws blackish or dark horny brown.
The irides are a bright very pale yellow ; the colour does not
vary with age, but in some birds the iris is almost silvery, and
in others there is a pinkish tinge.
The bill is umber brown ; the membrane of the nasal groove
red, much the same colour as the naked skin of the forehead,
lores and cheeks ; all are duller coloured in the Jess mature birds.
T H E PLATE is coarsely and carelessly executed. No one can
doubt Mr. Neale's capacity. Some of the plates of the Sand-
Grouse show how well he can draw when he choses, but this
plate and that of the Sarus are quite unworthy of his pencil.
In the young there is no bare space about the face; the whole
head and upper half of the neck are of a somewhat rusty buff;
the space destined later to become bare, however, is, in the youngest
specimens that I have seen, well defined, its clothing feathers
being of a browner and dingier hue than those of the rest of the
head, and sitting much closer to the skin. The buff is clearest
and deepest on the cheeks, and the top and back of the head,
and very pale on the chin and throat. The rest of the plumage,
when we first see the young birds, may (excepting the
primaries and their greater coverts and the winglet) be described
as buff, in some places brighter and more rufous, in others duller
and sandier, with white everywhere beginning to peep through it.
By February, though still much varied by buff, the white
predominates in the body plumage. At this time many of the
leathers of the back of the neck and upper back are still pure buff,
and many others are more or less tinged with this colour ; many
of the longer scapulars and tertials and the hindermost of the
secondaries are also buff, while the upper tail-coverts and most
of the lesser and median wing-coverts are tipped with it, and the
patch of coverts just above the winglet is usually entirely ferruginous.
There is a very faint tinge of buff on some of the feathers
of the breast; and many of the thigh-coverts are wholly rusty.
By the end of March, when the birds are nine or ten months
old, the face has begun to grow bare ; and, though there is still
some buff on the parts above mentioned, it has become markedly
less in extent and feebler in tint.