278 GAME BIEDS OF CALIFOENIA 



The stomach of a crane taken at Ash Meadows, on the Nevada- 

 California line, March 10, 1891, contained small bulbons roots, foliage 

 of young plants, and a quantity of barley, which latter had been 

 picked up from a place where horses had been fed (A. K. Fisher, 

 1893a, pp. 20-21). The gullet of one killed at Los Banos, Merced 

 County, was found to be filled with large barley grains probably 

 obtained from sowed ground (Beck, MS). When feeding on the plains 

 or in stubble fields these birds dig up the ground with their bills in 

 such a way that it looks as though a pick had been used. In the tule 

 country near Stockton Belding (MS) states that they used to feed 

 extensively on sagittaria bulbs. In the Imperial Valley Van Rossem 

 (1911, p. 129) observed cranes visiting the grain fields to forage, 

 going and coming from Salton Sea morning and evening as regularly 

 as though timed by a clock. In 1901 it was reported that cranes were 

 so numerous in the wheat fields west of Tulare that they had to be 

 scared away. The birds were seeking the newly sprouted grain, but no 

 detailed account of the kind or amount of damage done has been 

 obtained. 



' ' In the early settlement of California by Americans, when turkeys 

 were yet scarce, I have known a Sandhill Crane to command from 

 sixteen to twenty dollars in the San Francisco market for the purpose 

 of replacing, on the Christmas dinner table, that almost indispensable 

 feature of this particular festival" (Heermann, 1859, p. 62). More 

 recently cranes were of regular appearance in the markets of San 

 Francisco and Los Angeles. In the season of 1895-96, 385 cranes 

 were sold, bringing to the hunter about 50 cents each, considerably 

 more than any of the geese (Calif. Fish Comm., 1896, p. 42). All 

 testimony agrees as to the edible quality of the flesh of the crane, 

 and this is to be expected from its chiefly vegetable diet. 



As illustrating the craftiness of the Little Brown Crane, by which 

 it insures its safety from even long-range molestation, there may be 

 cited the experience of one of the present writers (Grinnell, MS). 

 On March 10, 1910, camp was pitched on the California bank of the 

 Colorado River about twenty-five miles below Needles. A large flock 

 of cranes arrived at early dusk and took possession of a sand bar 

 directly opposite camp. This bar was about midway from one wooded 

 shore to the other, and fully three hundred yards from either. It was 

 thus impossible to approach the birds under cover from any direction. 

 They were evidently on their guard all night ; every now and then 

 something would disturb them, and a chorus of sonorous calls and 

 wing-flappings would ensue for some minutes before quiet again 

 reigned. At dawn they were up and off. 



There are a few of our game birds which, because of their extreme 

 wariness, may be expected to survive in spite of the increased effi- 



