NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 240 



" A-rook-crook-crook! A-rook-crook-crook!" — "Come on; safe feeding h€re" — 

 tlie invitation call uttered in stentorian tones on the field in the morning. 



Then also there are short guttural croakings and putterings, conversational 

 exchanges while the birds are feeding; and, in addition, the youngsters have a 

 plaintive, absurd little whistle. 



FaU.~- According to Setoii (Tliompsoii 1890) : 



The young cranes are apparently strong on the wing in August, for at this 

 time small bands of the species may be seen sailing high over the prairie, appar- 

 ently strengthening their wings before they are compelled to journey southward for 

 the season. As Septeraljor draws nigh their numbers are increased, and the long 

 array of the grand birds present a most imposing spectacle as in serpentine lines 

 they float away after the sun. 



W. Leon Dawson (1909) writes: 



Prior to leaving the breeding grounds for the winter season, the cranes are 

 aid to assemble for a stately promenade, which is the "swell" function of the 

 year. When the clan is fully assembled, and after much preliminary sociability, 

 the great company takes to wing and rises in majestic circles. These spirals are 

 continued until a considerable height is attained with a great ado of sonorous 

 croaking, a solemn leave taking of the happy scenes of youth, after which the 

 birds move southward. 



Doctor Coues (1S74) says: 



Late in September and early in October immbers of this species and G. amer- 

 icana together were migrating through the same region; they appeared to jour- 

 ney chiefly by night. Often, as we lay encamped on the Mouse River, the still- 

 ness of midnight would be broken by the hoarse, rattling croaks of cranes 

 coming overhead, the noise finally dying in the distance, to be succeeded by 

 the shrill pipe of numberless waders, the honking of geese, and the whistle of the 

 pinions of myriads of wild fowl that shot past, sounding to sleepy ears like the 

 rushing sound of a far away locomotive. 



The sandhill cranes that breed in Florida are permanently resident 

 t hero and to what extent their numbers are increased in winter by 

 migrants from the North is an open question. Now that this species 

 has been so thoroughly extirpated in the eastern prairie regions, the 

 birds which breed in the Northwest may all migrate to Louisiana , 

 Texas, and Mexico, rather than to Florida. Mr. Moore says in his 

 notes: 



I do not believe the migrators ever ext(^:id their southern sojourn so far south 

 as this bay (Sarasota), as no increase in numbers occurs during that time among 

 those seen here, and no movement is observed among them to excite such a pre- 

 sumption. These birds are never seen to soar high in the air in flocks, at any 

 time of the year, as the migrators may be seen frequently to do in their south- 

 ern winter home in Louisiana, Texas, and other States; one or a pair only have I 

 ever seen moving thus, not intent on travel, but simply circling for "an airing," 

 as it were. 



Game. — The sandhill crane combines many of the qualities of a 

 fine game bird. There is pleasure to be derived in the pursuit of 

 what is difhcult to obtain, and certainly the cranes give plenty of 



