6i8 THE WHOOPIiNG CRANE. 



Recojtnition Marks. — Giant size; lonj^ neck; long stout l)Iack tarsi; pure 

 wliitc coloration. 



Nesting. — Nest: of grasses, on ground in marsli. lu/gs: 2 or 3, pale olive 

 or light drab, spotted and blotched with reddish brown and with obscure jiurplish 

 gray shell-markings. Av. size, 4.00x2.50 ( 101.6 x 63.3 1. 



General Ranjje. — "Interior of North America from the l'\ir Countries to 

 Florida, Texas, and Mexico, and from Ohio to Colorado. r'i>rmerly on the 

 Atlantic Coast, at least casually, to New England" ( .\. ( ). I'. Check List, 

 2nd Ed.). Is believed to be seeking refuge of late in nnfrei|uenled regions west 

 of the Rockies. 



Range in Washington. — Reported as summer resident in the liig Bend 

 country (western plateau of Douglas County) and as migrant in Yakima County. 



Authorities. — Dawson, ,\uk, \'ol. XX\'. Oct. 1908, p. 484. 



IT would overtax the patience of those who belie\'e that there is no bird 

 but a dead bird, if we reported the \\'liiioping Crane as a citizen of Washing- 

 ton solely on the strength of a flock observed bv tlie autlun- in Yakima Comity 

 (May 2, IQ08) and studied under binoculars at a range of fii'c miles. But 

 there is corn.iboratixe testinion\- fmni ranchers in both Yakima and Douglas 

 Counties. A young farmer, whose attention I called to the tlock as it 

 rose slowlv against the brown background of the Ahtanuni Range, assured 

 me that his father had killed one of three White Cranes some four or 

 fi\'e years jirex-ious. and that it stood as high as his head when held up. 

 Several ranchers in the liig Ik'iul country testifv that great white cranes 

 come in spring and light in their stuljljle fields. They are familiar with 

 the Sandhill Crane, and unite in declaring that these birds are white and 

 that thev stand higher than a man's head. Air. LeRoy Benson assvu"es 

 me that se\'eral have been shot and eaten in the neighborhood of Moses 

 Coulee, where his brother-in-law once winged a s|)ecimen and pursued it for 

 half a da\-. I am thus explicit because there is no account of the occurrence 

 of this now rare species west of the Rocky Mountains. sa\"e some uncertain 

 recortls from southern Oregon. It would appear ])robaljle that these majestic 

 birds are being dri\'en by persecution from their former range on the Great 

 Plains, and that the\' are seeking asylum with us. If so they should be as 

 rigidlv protected as buffaloes under similar circumstances. Si)read the word 

 that the Whooping Crane is nat to be Icilled. saxe to the irreparable detriment 

 of the race — our race, as well as that of the birds. 



