228 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in South Carolina; at the same season and in the early part of the following 

 month I heard their clamorous cries nearly every morning around the enswamped 

 ponds of west Florida and throughout Georgia, so that many individuals prob- 

 ably pass either the winter or the whole year in the southern extremity of the 

 Union. It is impossible to describe the clamor of one of these roosting flocks, 

 which they begin usually to utter about sunrise. Like the howling monkeys, or 

 preachers of South America (as they are called), a single individual seemed at 

 first as if haranguing or calling out to the assembled company, and after uttering a 

 round number of discordant, sonorous, and braying tones, the address seemed as if 

 received with becoming applause, and was seconded with a reiteration of jingling 

 and trumpeting hurrahs. The idea conveyed by this singular association of 

 sounds so striking, quaint, and ludicrous that I could never hear it without 

 smiling at the conceit. Captain Amidas (the first Englishman who ever set foot 

 in North America) thus graphically describes their clamor on his landing on the 

 isle of Wokokou, off the coast of North Carolina, in the month of July: " Such a 

 flock of cranes (the most part white) arose under us, with such a cry, redoubled 

 by many echoes, as if an army of men had shouted all together." 



According to Mr. Bradshaw's notes, the whooping crane can "rise 

 against the wind with no run to speak of; sometimes one or two steps 

 are taken ; at other times it simply crouches down and seems to spring 

 from the feet and tarsi." In flight the wings are in motion most of 

 the time and average, approximately, one beat per second; there is 

 a very slight curve in the neck when flying and the legs are held 

 sUghtly down from the horizontal. The birds are very graceful when 

 planing. Previous to alighting, there is a "slight downward curve in 

 the wings" and the legs are spread apart and "thrust well forward." 

 While walking through the marsh the tibiae are held "horizontal with 

 the body" and there is a "kink in the neck." The reddish patch 

 on the crown is very prominent in the sun and the plumes are 

 conspicuous. 



Fall. — Nuttall (1834) witnessed a great fall flight of this species, 

 of which he says: 



In the month of December, 1811, while leisurely descending on the bosom of 

 the Mississippi in one of the trading boats of that period, I had an opportunity 

 of witnessing one of these vast migrations of the whooping cranes, assembled by 

 many thousands from all the marshes and impassable swamps of the North and 

 West. The whole continent seemed as if giving up its quota of the species to 

 swell the mighty host. Their flight took place in the night, down the great 

 aerial valley of the river, whose southern course conducted them every instant 

 toward warmer and more hospitable climes. The clangor of these numerous 

 legions passing along high in the air seemed almost deafening; the confused cry 

 of the vast army continued with the lengthening procession, and as the vocal call 

 continued nearly throughout the whole night without intermission, some idea 

 may be formed of the immensity of the numbers now assembled on their annual 

 journey to the regions of the south. 



Audubon (1840) unquestionably referred to this species when he 

 wrote: 



The variegated foliage of the woods indicates that the latter days of October 

 have arrived; gloomy clouds spread over the heavens; the fierce blasts of the 



