4 THE SARUS.
yet object to their being interfered with, I have myself watched
them from distances of forty or fifty yards without attracting
their attention.
When the young are still only half grown, say up to the end
of the year, both old birds may often be observed to seize some
morsel and call one of the young to eat i t ; and again, when
down by the water, they may be seen pluming and adjusting
the toilette of their progeny. Later, though the young often
keep with them as late as March, they do not, I think, feed them,
though they still call to them, and warn them if any suspicious
object appears. Later again in the spring, the pair maybe seen
standing, side by side, in the shallow water, pluming and fondling
each other most affectionately ; and, though in captivity and
in a semi-domesticated state, they seem to be rather ill-conditioned,
spiteful birds, where men, and especially children and
dogs, are concerned, pecking savagely at the eyes of these without
provocation, in their wild state, amongst themselves, they
appear to be most gentle loving creatures.
They rise off the ground with some little difficulty, always
taking a run of some yards before actually getting on the wing
the heavy strokes of their powerful pinions resounding meanwhile
far and wide. But when once off, their flight is very
strong ; and though, from the noise attending it, it seems
laboured, it is continued at times, without apparent effort and
voluntarily, for several miles, but never, so far as my experience
goes, at any great height above the ground. In March and
April, one year, in Etawah, a pair that I got to recognize from
meeting them constantly at different points along their course,
used to come down every day about 8 o'clock in the morning to
the banks of the Jumna from high ground (about five miles
distant) which, during some months of the year, contained a
large piece of water, and during some months more, a daily
diminishing swampy pool. Throughout this long flight, I do not
believe that they ever rose above twenty yards from the ground.
I do not think that they ever, in India, rise high in air, and
circle round and round as other Cranes do, even the Australian
" Native Companion," which, in most other respects, so closely
resembles our Indian bird.
Their food is very varied—frogs, lizards and all small reptiles,
insects of all kinds, snail and other land and water shells, seeds,
grains and small fruits of various kinds, green vegetable
matter, and the bulbous roots of various species of aquatic
plants—all contribute to their nutriment ; and they seem to feed
indifferently in wet and dry fields, on dry grassy uplands, on
the margins and in the shallows, of rivers, broads and swamps.
They walk alike on land and in water fully eighteen inches
deep, easily and gracefully, but withal in a slow, stately
manner, lifting each leg deliberately and rather high. The
land, or land and water, seem more to their taste than the air,
THE SARUS. 5
and they never venture into the latter, I think, except on business.
Unlike most other birds they never fly for pleasure,
but only to escape a possible or threatened danger, or when the
quest of food or water requires them to move rapidly to a considerable
distance. I have often watched a pair walk deliberately
one, or even two, miles down to the waters' edge over
a grassy plain or meadow, or wide level, free from banks and
hedges, carpeted with springing wheat, instead of flying down,
as they could have done, in one-tenth of the time. If trees
and banks and other cover intervene, they will fly, but only
I think because they do not feel certain that some enemy may
not be lurking behind these, and therefore, get on the wing so as
to enable themselves to keep a better look-out as they proceed.
Their call is very loud and sonorous, and may be heard at
great distances. It is sounded at all seasons, and is uttered
alike on the ground and during flight, but is most often repeated
during the night and in the mornings and evenings. They
always call when alarmed, both before and after rising, and
during the night they seem to call continually. Whether, when
darkness shrouds them from each other, they thus make sure
that their mates are not playing truants, or, whether prowling
wolves or jackals alarm them, I cannot say ; but in many parts of
the plains of Upper India, if you are encamped within a
couple of miles of any good-sized sheet of water, you are sure
to hear their clear trumpet-like call, re-echoing at intervals,
through the stillness, throughout the live-long night.
From Burma, Mr. Davis sends me the following interesting
note :—
" I n last August (1879) I saw several flocks of these birds
every day in the Khendans, or rising ground opposite Theinzeik,
which is twelve miles north of Thatone. The flocks varied
in size, from parties of 8 or 10 to fully 60. As a rule, these birds
live in pairs, and I was unable to ascertain the cause of their
thus congregating, especially at this season. The flocks consisted
of both sexes, and included young birds of the previous year.
" I have found numbers of their nests about the end of
August. Some of the young cannot fly, even as late as December,
and I have often caught them by chasing them on foot.
They are very cunning, and take advantage of the slightest
shelter, but when run down in the open, bury their heads in the
short grass, and make no further attempts to escape. They
remain perfectly quiet even when lifted up.
" They feed a great deal on the young paddy plant, and
sometimes do considerable damage in the nurseries. I have
never myself noticed them feeding on anything else, though
probably they do also eat other green shoots, grasshoppers, and
frogs, and perhaps young fry, left stranded in the fields, but I do
not think they catch live fish, although the young, when domesticated,
are often fed by the Burmans on small fish and shrimps.