WATER BIRDS. 151 



of two years on Neebish Island in the St. Mary's River. Mr. L. Whitney 

 Watkins beUeves that they still nest in parts of Jackson and Washtenaw 

 counties, and ]\Ir. Edward Arnold of Battle Creek has known of their nesting 

 recently in several places in the southern part of the state. W. P. Melville 

 states that he saw three adults and took a young one in the down on the 

 plains south of Newberry (Upper Peninsula), Luce county, in 1903; Mr. 

 Newell A. Eddy of Bay City reports seeing eleven on the marshes near 

 Seney, Schoolcraft county, September 25, 1895, and was informed by 

 residents that they occurred there every fall. Single specimens are taken 

 here and there through the state occasionally now, but it seems certain 

 that its numbers are decreasing steadily, and before many years in all 

 probability it will desert the state altogether, seeking nesting places farther 

 north and west where it can find greater security. 



Fig. 40. Head of Sandhill Crane. 

 From photograph of mounted specimen. 



The nesting date given above by Dr. Atkins would seem to be unusually 

 late in view of the fact that Trombley records two fresh eggs taken in Mon- 

 roe county, April 23, 1885, and L. J. Cole took two newly hatched young on 

 Chandler's Marsh, Ingham county in May, 1898. Several writers state that 

 the bird is an early nester, and we should infer that ordinarily the eggs 

 were laid the last of April or first of May. Covert, however, records a nest 

 found near Ann Arbor June" 2, 1870^ (Forest and Stream, VII, 10, 147), 

 and we find among the notes'of the late Percy Selous a record of a nest 

 and two eggs at Burgess Lake^ near Greenville, Montcalm county, June 30, 

 1894. 



