NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 221 



of its former breeding range, which occupied a comparatively narrow 

 belt in the interior of the continent; perhaps it once included much or 

 all of the prairie regions from Great Slave Lake to Illinois. 



J. W. Preston (1893), writing of conditions "years ago, when north- 

 western Iowa was a vast prairie, out into which few settlers had ven- 

 tured, thus describes the nesting of this species in that State : 



One memorable afternoon in early May I left the tent in kindly shelter of the 

 fringe of woods on Crystal Lake, Winnebago County, Iowa, the lakelet in whose 

 sparkling waters classic Iowa River finds birth. Following the stream as it 

 wound about through fiat meadows or by low, gravelly hills, I reached the im- 

 mense marsh lying north from Eagle Lake. Here were secured a number of the 

 large, drab-and~spotted eggs of the white crane. They had chosen the center of 

 the marsh for a nesting place, and there, a mile from the higher shores, the mother 

 birds could be seen upon the nests, which were formed of soft grass gathered to- 

 gether in a firm heap about 1 \A feet high, and placed on firm sod, out of water, but 

 very near it. In the top of this heap was a very slight depression for the eggs. Up- 

 on these nests the birds sit in the same posture that a goose assumes, the legs pro- 

 truding behind. They often let the head and neck lie down along the side of the 

 nest in a wearied way, which is usual for the Canada goose, especially if the hunter 

 is near. Upon my approaching the marsh these birds moved away with stately 

 tread, walking much faster than I cared to do, yet apparently taking it easy. 

 The white crane is certainly a strikingly handsome bird in its wild retreats. One 

 does not tire of watching their peculiar movements. When walking at a distance 

 they appear almost as tall as a man. They are far more alert and much wilder 

 than the brown cranes. 



Dr. R. M. Anderson (1894) gives us another good account of what 

 was probably the last nesting of the whooping crane in that same 

 region as follows: 



On May 24, 1894, a boy offered to sell me two sandhill crane's eggs, which he 

 had found about a week previously. The next Saturday, May 26, 1 started out to 

 his place to try and collect some eggs. In the afternoon we started for a marsh, 

 which a pair of white cranes had frequented all spring. The boy said that quite 

 a number of white cranes had been seen around there in the early spring, but 

 only one pair had remained over. As we came up over the top of a hill we saw 

 in the middle of a large marsh two white objects, which looked like large rocks, 

 but they began moving, and had evidently seen us as soon as we saw them, for 

 they soon rose up with slow, heavy flaps of their great wings and flew over to 

 the further side of the marsh, where we could see them stalking along with long 

 strides as fast as a man could walk. In fact, when they stood straight up 

 they looked almost as tall as a man. Occasionally one would utter a whoop that 

 could be heard for a long distance. We waded along the whole length of the 

 slough finding some masses which looked like crane's nests, but securing nothing 

 but a Grebe's egg, which I dug out of a wet, floating mass of rotten vegetation. 

 While wading through the slough we scared up several small flocks of mallards, 

 pintails, blue-winged teals, and saw Wilson's phalaropes and black terns by the 

 dozen. When we got near the west end of the slough, I started to wade down a 

 branch that went off toward the south. I saw several cranes' nests or muskrat 

 houses, I could not tell which, only a few rods apart. As I stood up on one and 

 looked around I saw two great eggs on the next one. All this while the two 

 cranes had been stalking along on the hill quite a ways off, keeping close to- 

 gether, and seemed trying to attract our attention by holding their heads down, 

 92642— 26t 16 



