148 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Mr. ]\lcllvvraith in his Birds of Ontario gives two instances of the 

 breeding of this species in southwestern Ontario and mentions the 

 kilhng of another specimen at Rondeau, Lake Erie, in 1869. 



I have carefully read Mr. Seton's account of Grus mexicana in his 

 Birds of Manitoba, and am of the opinion that some of his "sandhill 

 cranes" were Grus canadensis. Indeed in quoting Dr. Coues he says 

 that he (Coues) found this species breeding west of Pembina when 

 in reality Dr. Coues says it was the brown crane he found there. 

 See Coues on Birds of Dakota and Montana, page 646. It is possible, 

 however, that Dr. Coues gave the wrong name to his species. 



In my earlier explorations I was mislead in this same way by 

 both cranes being called "sandhill cranes." In 1872 a specimen 

 of this species was caught with a lasso by one of our men, who ran 

 him down, when moulting in August of that year. This specimen 

 was much heavier than the 10 lb. specimens of Mr. Seton. Richard- 

 son's specimen, killed on Great Slave lake in 1822, was forty-eight 

 inches long, so that it was certainly this species also. Fannin and 

 Brooks say that it is a summer resident in southern British Columbia, 

 but chiefly east of the Coast range, though not so common as the 

 little brown crane which is, however, chiefly a migrant. Brooks 

 found G. mexicana breeding in suitable localities in the Cariboo 

 district. 



Breeding Notes. — The sandhill crane comes to southern INIani- 

 toba about the end of April, circling around high in the blue and 

 uttering its peculiar call. When mating it repairs to some hillock 

 or knoll and executes a sort of war dance by dancing around and 

 flapping its huge wings. It usually breeds on some tussock of 

 decaying vegetation in a marsh, building quite a large nest of moss 

 and rushes. I have never seen more than two eggs in the nest 

 These are shaped and coloured very much like those of the loon^ 

 though perhaps, a little more pointed. The young leave the nest 

 almost immediately after hatching. They are clothed with a thick 

 ferruginous down, and have legs about four inches long. If caught 

 when very young they are easily tamed, readily eating bread or 

 scraps of meat, and are of great service to a gardener. I have seen 

 one about a month old go down a line of onions and take up every 

 cut-worm from their roots, as if an inch and a half of mould were 

 perfectly transparent. After the young are fully grown they gather 



