GRUID.E — THE CRANES — GRUS. 413 



eggs. He found it as far west as tlie Eocky Mountains. Mr. Murray met with it on 

 Hudson's Bay, and Mr. Eoss found it common along the banks of tlie Mackenzie 

 Eiver as far nortli as the Arctic coast. 



Hearne, in his '' Journey to the Northern Ocean " (p. 423), refers to this species 

 as the Brown Crane, speaking of it as greatly inferior in size to the Whooping Crane, 

 and as being seldom more than three and a half feet in length, and not weighing 

 on an average more than seven pounds. Its haunts and manner of life are, he adds, 

 nearly the same as those of the larger species, each pair never having more than 

 two young, and these being seldom able to fly before September. This species is 

 found much farther north than the larger one, several having been killed by him on 

 Marble Island ; and he has also met with it on the continent as high at least as lati- 

 tude 60°. It is generally esteemed good eating, and goes by the name of the " North- 

 west Turkey." He states that the gizzard of this species is larger than that of the 

 Trumpeter Swan, and is especially large in the young bird. In hot calm days the 

 BroAvn Crane may be frequently seen soaring to an amazing height, always flying 

 in circles, until by degrees it passes almost out of sight. Yet its note is so very loud 

 that the sportsman, before he sees its situation, will often imagine the bird is very 

 near him. This species visits Hudson's Bay in far greater mmibers than the larger one. 

 Eichardson also states that it is found in all parts of the Fur Country in summer, 

 even as far as the shores of the Arctic Sea. Its flesh is regarded by him as excellent, 

 resembling that of the Trumpeter Swan in its flavor. It breeds throughout the 

 Arctic regions. 



Mr. Kennicott met with this species at Fort Eesolution, May 30, where he procured 

 two examples. Mr. MacFarlane obtained a skin, in the autumn of 1863, from the 

 Eskimos on the Lower Anderson Eiver, and an egg in June, 1864, from an island 

 in Franklin Bay. The nest is said to have been a hole scooped in the sand, and lined 

 with a considerable quantity of withered grasses. A few more birds of the same 

 species evidently had nests on the same island, but they could not be discovered. 

 Dr. Walker met with a single specimen of this bird at Pond's Bay, in latitude 72°, on 

 the west coast of Baffin's Bay ; but it has been very rarely seen so far north as that 

 coast. 



An egg of this species (S. I. No. 15731) obtained by Mr. MacFarlane in Liverpool 

 Bay, on the Arctic coast, measures 3.65 inches in length by 2.30 in breadth, is oval 

 in shape, and very nearly equally obtuse at either end. Its ground-color is a faint 

 washing of sepia-brown, and it is marked, over the entire egg, with patches of pro- 

 nounced sepia, which become more and more deep until about the larger end they 

 form a ring of darker and still more distinct sepia. 



