OF NORTH AMERICA. 45 
THE WADERS: 
53. * WHOOPING CRANE. 
Grus americand. 
Old birds white, with black wine-tips ; 
bill greenish; tegs black; head naked, car- 
mine color, sparsely covered with hair-like 
black feathers; eyes yellow. The young 
birds are gray ish- white, with patches of cinna- 
ai acuieae head feathered, of the same 
brown color. Length 43 feet ; extent, 73 feet, 
weight 12 to 30 lbs. Female a little smaller. 
It principally habits the Southern States and 
the Mississippi Valley. Its voice is loud 
and can be heard a long distance. These 
birds feed upon grains, vegetables, worms, 
mice, reptiles, or in fact almost anything 
which comes within their reach. They are 
strong fliers and keep up a continuous croak 
as they carry their Indian file through the 
air. They are exceedingly wary, and are 
best shot from blinds, as they come to feed in 
the shores of the shallow ponds of the South. 
I scarcely am able to distinctively class this 
bird and its succeeding allies as game birds, 
although their flesh is not bad eating, and is 
much relished by some, so I have admitted 
