NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 225 



one egg proved to be infertile. The shape is elliptical ovate. The shell 

 is smooth, but more or less pimpled and slightly glossy. The eggs 

 are usually, if not always, darker colored and more heavily marked 

 than those of the sandhill crane. The ground color varies from 

 "cream buff" to ''olive buff." This is clouded and blotched, quite 

 heavily near the larger end and more sparingly elsewhere, with dull 

 browns, "wood browns" or "huffy brown," overlaid with blotches 

 of darker and brighter browns, "Verona brown" or "hazel." The 

 measurements of 38 eggs average 98.4 by 62.4 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 107.5 by 63.5, 98 by 67.5, and 

 87.4 by 50.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Mr. Bradshaw while near the nest "heard a strange pip- 

 ing whistle," which he discovered to be "that of a young crane just 

 breaking through the shell. The call was very vigorous for an un- 

 hatched bird." After hatching the young bird called "almost con- 

 stantly, by a whistle resembling that of the red-winged blackbird, 

 but fainter; occasionally it would be louder or more pathetic." On 

 the day after hatching he was surprised to see the young bird leave 

 the nest at his approach and start swimming toward the rushes. 



Plumages. — I have never seen a downy young whooping crane, but 

 Mr. Bradshaw describes, in his notes, one that he found in a nest, 

 apparently recently hatched on May 30, as follows: 



The young bird for the most part is of a buff color; from the neck to the rump 

 on the back it is somewhat darker, while the under parts are much paler than 

 the color of the head. The bill is about three-fourths inch long, upper half flesh 

 color, lower half darker or horn color, a small white spot on the upper mandible. 



Specimens of immature birds are too scarce in collections to give 

 any definite idea of the time required to reach maturity. A young 

 bird collected in October probably represents the juvenal or first 

 winter plumage. The head is wholly feathered, including the fore- 

 head and lores. The plumage is mainly white, but it is heavily mot- 

 tled on the head and neck with "pinkish cinnamon" or "cinnamon 

 buff, " almost solid color on the crown; the back and wing coverts are 

 variegated with the same colors, due to a mixture of white feathers 

 and colored feathers in varying amounts, the colored feathers being 

 thicker in the back and scapulars and more scattered in the wings; 

 the colored feathers are darkest in the scapulars, some as dark as 

 "sayal brown"; the primaries are dull black. 



Apparently a partial molt of the contour feathers occm*s in winter 

 and spring, producing an advance toward maturity. A young bird, 

 taken February 16, has the head and neck still mottled and the larger 

 scapulars, wing coverts, rectrices, and upper tail coverts more or less 

 extensively washed at, or near, the tips with cinnamon. Another 

 young bird, taken April 10, has less cinnamon in the head and neck 



