WHOOPING CRANE. 37 



bled company, and after uttering a round number of discord- 

 ant, sonorous, and braying tones, the address seemed as 

 if received with becoming applause, and was seconded with 

 a reiteration of jingling and trumpeting hurras. The idea 

 conveyed by this singular association of sounds, was so 

 striking, quaint, and ludicrous, that I could never hear it 

 without smiling at the conceit. Captain Amidas, (the first 

 Englishman who ever set foot in North America) thus graphi- 

 cally describes their clamor, on his landing on the isle of 

 Wokokou, off the coast of North Carolina, in the month 

 of July, '' Such a flock of Cranes (the most part white) arose 

 under us, with such a cry, redoubled by many echoes, as if an 

 army of men had showted all together." But though this 

 display of their discordant calls may be amusing, the bustle 

 of their great migrations, and the passage of their mighty 

 armies fills the mind with wonder. In the month of De- 

 cember, 1811, while leisurely descending on the bosom of 

 the Mississippi, in one of the trading boats of that period, I 

 had an opportunity of witnessing one of these vast migra- 

 tions of the Whooping Cranes, assembled by many thou- 

 sands from all the marshes and impassable swamps of the 

 north and west. The whole continent seemed as if giving 

 up its quota of the species to swell the mighty host. Their 

 flight took place in the night, down the great aerial valley 

 of the river, whose southern course conducted them every 

 instant towards warmer and more hospitable climes. The 

 clangor of these numerous legions, passing along, high in 

 the air, seemed almost deafening ; the confused cry of the 

 vast army continued, with the lengthening procession, and 

 as the vocal call continued nearly throughout the whole 

 night, w^ithout intermission, some idea may be formed of the 

 immensity of the numbers now assembled on their annual 

 journey to the regions of the south. 

 4 



