248 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to time him over a mile or see him fan by at close range to realize that his huge 

 wing-planes, though slow in action, really propel him forward at a goodly speed. 

 Owing to his far-extended frame he has not the same aerial fighting powers as 

 the more solidly built gray goose, and thus can not combat a gale so sturdily. 

 Nevertheless it is in the wind that one sees him at his best — a display of aerial 

 skill surpassed by but few birds indeed. 



Like most feathered navigators of the air that hover or circle much, the crane 

 matches one opposition against the other to his own profit. Gravity tends to 

 drag his huge bulk down; the strong air current, striking the under side of his 

 upward-slanting planes and body, tends to lift him kitelike. Thus matcliir.g 

 one force against the other enables him to hang almost suspended in midair. 

 His long rudder-legs trail far astern, his slender neck is far outthrust ahead (not 

 crooked back after the manner of the heron or the stork) ; so he rocks back and 

 forth, changing the angle of his planes to suit the air current and performs prod- 

 igies of flight. In swinging spirals, with scarce a wing motion to indicate the 

 power of his flight muscles, he ascends or descends airii}', easily. He is the origi- 

 nal aeroplane; the man-made product, in spite of its motor, is an infringement. 

 Almost equally wondrous are his sky-chasing flights on calm days. Daily in 

 August and early September, when his clans are gathering, it is his custom, if the 

 day is hot and clear, to rise about noon and circle dizzily at a vast height — so 

 high that often his figure is lost to view, and even his trumpet croak faint to the 

 ear. On the spiralled ascent he swings around and around, after the manner of 

 the hawks, apparently getting power from some mysterious source; on the descent 

 he arches his wings downward and sweeps back and forth in short circles. 



As to its powers of vison, the same writer says: 



His great stature gives him the range almost of that of a man; his eye is won- 

 drously keen, telescopically so; it is so near the top of his head that he can peer 

 over the crest of a ktioU and see without being seen, and its clear amber yellow 

 suggests an owUike vision at night. Though he is big and tall, he is really not 

 easily seen, for his coat is one of nature's triumphs of protective coloration. Blue- 

 gray in tone, it is obscure always; it fades into the gray -green of the prairie even 

 in the brightest sunlight; it melts into the dusk of twilight or is swallowed in the 

 blue dome of the heavens at midday. A sentry on the alert at all times, his 

 trumpet throat gives warning of dariger to his kind far and near and all instantly 

 pay heed. 



The voice of the sandhill crane is most remarkable; its loud, ring- 

 ing, and sometimes musical trumpetings have great carrying power 

 and often can be heard long before the bird can be seen. For a good 

 account of its vocal performance [ must again quote from Mr. Laing 

 (1915): 



It is a hoarse, unnatural croak that rips from the throat, a vibrant puttering 

 that seems to suggest something prehistoric — such a call as one might expect that 

 our far-gone ancestors heard in the days when pterodactyls and their kind flew 

 about the marshes. His vocabulary is limited to a code of signals, but it is all 

 sufficient for his needs. A few of his more common calls might be syllablized 

 as: 



" Gar-oo-oo-oo-oo! Gar-oo-oo-oo! ' — the fair-weather, sky-scraping call uttered 

 in the heavens. 



" Hur-roo-oo-roo-roo!" — a broken, three-word call of inquiry when one flock on 

 the wing seeks another far below. 



"Kit-cr-roo-oo-oo!" — "Danger! Look out for yourself!" 



