232 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



much confusion of the two birds exists in the hterature of ornitholo- 

 gists, egg collectors, and sportsmen. The little brown crane breeds 

 only far north in the Arctic regions well across the continent; it spends 

 the winter mainly in southern Texas and Mexico ; but it is very abun- 

 dant on migrations in the Western part of the continent, mainly west 

 of the Rocky Mountains. It is now generally conceded, I beUeve, 

 that this and the sandhill crane are only subspecifically distinct. 



Spring. — Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) has had abundant opportunities 

 for studying this crane in its summer home in Alaska and gives us 

 the best account of its habits; of its arrival in the spring, he says: 



At Saint Michaels it sometimes arrives by May 7, when there is yet scarcely 

 a bare spot of ground, and one season these early comers had to endure some 

 severe weather, and several inches of new snow, over which they stalked glum 

 and silent, showing little of their usual roystering spirit. As a rule they are 

 not seen until from the 10th to the 15th of the month, when the ground is usu- 

 ually half bare and the cranes can search every hillside for last year's heathber- 

 ries, which, with an occasional lemming or mouse, constitute their food at this 

 season. They come from the south toward the lower Yukon, and on mild, pleas- 

 ant days it is a common sight to see the cranes advancing high overhead in wide 

 circuits, poised on motionless wings, and moving with a grace unexpected in such 

 awkwardly-formed birds. As the weather gets warmer they become more and 

 more numerous, until the drier parts of the wide flats and low, rounded elevations 

 are numerously populated by these odd birds. The air is filled with the loud, 

 hard, rolling k-r-roo, kr-r-r-roo, ku-kr-r-roo, and either flying by, with trailing legs, 

 or moving gravely from place to place, they do much to render the monotonous 

 landscape animate. 



Courtship. — Of this interesting performance, he goes on to say: 



The end of May draws near, and the full tide of their spring fever causes these 

 birds to render themselves preeminently ludicrous by the queer antics and per- 

 formances which the crane's own book of etiquette doubtless rules to be the 

 proper thing at this mad season. I have frequently lain in concealment and 

 watched the birds conduct their affairs of love close by, and it is an interesting 

 as well as amusing sight. Some notes jotted down on the spot will present the 

 matter more vividly than I can describe from memory, and I quote them. On 

 May 18, I lay in a hunting blind, and was much amused by the performance of 

 two cranes, which alighted near by. The first comer remained alone but a short 

 time, when a second bird came along, uttering his loud note at short intervals, 

 until he espied the bird on the ground, when he made a slight circuit, and drop- 

 ped close by. Both birds then joined in a series of loud rolling cries in quick 

 succession. Suddenly the newcomer, which appeared to be a male, wheeled his 

 back toward the female and made a low bow, his head nearly touching the ground, 

 and ending by a quick leap into the air; another pirouette brings him facing his 

 charmer, whom he greets with a still deeper bow, his wings meanwhile hanging 

 loosely by his sides. She replies by an answering bow and hop, and then each 

 tries to outdo the other in a series of spasmodic hops and starts, mixed with a 

 set of comically grave and ceremonious bows. The pair stood for some moments 

 bowing right and left, when their legs appeared to become envious of the large 

 share taken in the performance by the neck, and then would ensue a series of 

 stilted hops and skips which are more like the steps of a burlesque minuet than 

 anything else I can think of. Frequently others joins and the dance keeps up 

 until all are exhausted. 



