276 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



counted, and it was estimated that at least 800 birds were seen inside 

 of forty-five minutes. Persons in the neighborhood reported that 

 flocks of cranes had been feeding in that vicinity for the two or three 

 months previous to this observation. Six specimens now in the 

 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology were collected at Los Baiios, Merced 

 County, February 6, 1912. The following migration data gathered 

 by Belding (MS), although attributed to the Sandhill Crane, prob- 

 ably, in the light of our present knowledge, refer chiefly or altogether 

 to the Little Brown Crane. The earliest fall records for Stockton, 

 San Joaquin County, are: September 18, 1880, and September 23, 

 1881, when cranes were seen flying south. At Campo, San Diego 

 County, many flocks have been seen passing high overhead in a south- 

 easterly direction which would have led them to the head of the Gulf 

 of California where the species is known to winter abundantly. In 

 early spring flocks have been noted traversing the same course in re- 

 verse direction. In the vicinity of Volcan Mountain, San Diego 

 County, cranes were seen going north or northwest in flocks March 16 

 and 20. At Tehachapi Pass, Kern County, April 4, 1889, many flocks 

 were seen by Belding going w^est to the San Joaquin Valley, the flight 

 continuing interruptedly for several days. They were first seen at 

 Marysville, Yuba County, in 1884, on March 6, but the bulk did not 

 arrive until May 1. The same year large numbers were seen going 

 north at Chico, Butte County, on May 2 ; the last were seen on May 20. 

 At Gridley, Butte County, large flocks were seen going north on 

 May 10, 1884. 



The Little Brown Crane resorts to a far northern summer home 

 where it can raise its young in safety from most of its enemies and 

 where suitable food is to be found in abundance. The vast open 

 tundras of western and northern Alaska and extreme northern British 

 America afford these conditions. Because of the prolonged winters, 

 the cranes do not arrive on their breeding grounds until some time 

 in May, and this may account for the lateness of their departure 

 from California. The earliest arrivals at Saint Michael, Alaska, have 

 been noted on May 7 (Nelson, 1887, p. 94) ; farther north, on the 

 Kowak Kiver, Alaska, the first birds in 1899 appeared on May 14 

 (Grinnell, 1900, p. 19). 



Recording his experiences with the Little Brown Crane at St. 

 Michael, Nelson (loc. cit.) says: "They come from the south toward 

 the Lower Yukon, and on mild, pleasant days it i& a common sight to 

 see the cranes advancing high overhead in wdde circuits, poised on 

 motionless wings, and moving with a grace unexpected in such 

 awkwardly formed 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 trail- 

 ing legs, or moving gravely from place to place, they do much to 

 render the monotonous landscape animate." 



