246 



Bird - Lore 



TWO CIVILIZED SANDHILL CRANES 



By MINNA MOORE WILLSON 



I U)ILY FROM i HI, HAN h 



Betty and Dixie are two pet Sandhill 

 Cranes that have lived happily on the 

 large lawn of our home at Kissimmee, 

 Florida, even since they were downy 

 youngsters fresh from the Everglades. 



Economically they have few rivals, 

 for, with their never-ending appetites 

 and great capacity for food, they dig 

 from the first streak of dawn to the fall- 

 ing of the evening shadows. Worms, bugs, 

 larvae, and grasshoppers, all disappear 

 rapidly down their long necks. They will 

 eat readily from the hand. 



Our pets, now being advanced some- 

 what in the scale of civilization, have 

 learned to intersperse their natural food 

 with wheat, corn, and scraps from the 

 table. How much insect-food they would 

 consume if left entirely to their own 

 devices it is difficult to say. When the 

 wheat-can hanging from a wire on the 

 back veranda is empty, a message is 

 quickly telephoned to the housekeeper, 

 by a petulant ringing of the can, which 

 unmistakably means 'empty dinner-pail,' 



During the tourist-season, Betty and 

 Dixie are much in the limelight. They 

 have developed a certain amount of vanity, 

 and seem to understand the exclamations 

 of praise and admiration given by visitors, 

 who frequently stop at the fence to admire 

 them. 



The use of kodaks they look upon as 

 quite proper, and stand with a dignity 

 that is very gratifying to the photographer. 

 They have learned, at the behest of their 

 master, to carol a greeting, as many times 

 as it is requested; and their dancing is 

 no longer the hesitation nor the turkey- 

 trot, but the real, rioting, Kissimmee 

 prairie-dance, bowing and running with 

 widely outstretched wings, circling, jump- 

 ing, and then darting back to their master 

 for new orders and a piece of moss. This 

 they throw into the air and catch, and 

 then dance about again with great 

 animation. 



When these performances begin, Efan, 

 the ambitious collie, hurries for his ball 

 and bat, and the scene becomes most 



