More Indian Birds by C. T.

BUCKLAND (commissioner of Dacca)

Published on Longman's magazine, Volume 19 edited by Charles James Longman

Page 177- Page 178

…In a former paper I wrote about the Coolen cranes. There is another large
crane known as the Sayrus that is not unfrequently seen in many parts of India.
When I was living at Dacca as commissioner I kept a large tame Sayrus, to
whom the native servants had given the name of Kulloo, but I believe that they
call every tame Sayrus by that name, just as they speak to every performing bear
as ' Madari.' My Kulloo was a fine specimen fully five feet in height. The plumage
is of a delicate French grey colour, with short bright crimson feathers on the
throat and top of the head, so that it is a beautiful bird to look at. The long beak is
rather a dangerous weapon, and as the Sayrus usually aims at the eye of an
assailant, many a small dog has paid by the loss of his sight for his impudence in
going and barking at them. Kulloo used to come into the garden outside the
breakfast-room window, and waitto be fed with bits of bread and other scraps
thrown out to him, which he caught unerringly. One day a wicked man who was
staying with me took an insidious shot at Kulloo with a blow-pipe, and the sharp
dart stuck in the joint of his wing. Kulloo was mad with pain and excitement, and
went dancing round the garden in the most fantastic fashion, until at last the
native servant who had special charge of him threw himself on the bird's neck
and extricated the dart. The Sayrus has a habit of dancing about and jumping up
in the air for his own amusement, and the natives say that when it dances it
prognosticates rain. In my opinion Kulloo did not set up as a rain-prophet, but
danced whenever it pleased him to do so. He had a bad habit of walking out into
the native town, and helping himself at the grain shops in the native streets ; but
the people, though afraid of him, never did him any harm, as they have a
superstition that it is wrong and unlucky to injure a Sayrus. Mr. Simson tells a
story how a native gentleman begged him not to shoot a Sayrus, and warned him
that the wife of a sahib who had shot one had shortly afterwards died of cholera.
One day, as we were riding home in the evening, we met Kulloo being brought
home from the native town in the custody of the police. I forget what mischief he
had been at. but it took four policemen to bring him along, and they walked
behind him with a rope stretched across the street, whilst Kulloo stalked along in
front, looking back contemptuously at his custodians from time to time. When I
left Dacca in 18G8 I gave Kulloo to the Nawab Ahsanoolla Khan Bahadoor of
that city, and only a few months ago the Nawab, in writing to me, mentioned that
Kulloo was alive and well. I think he must have been mistaken; but if it is the
same bird, it must be one of the oldest Sayruses in existence…..