14 



picious nature, and its betraying its whereabouts so conspicuously 

 by its loud cries, I have no doubt that as soon as this part of 

 Florida is settled, it will be exterminated. 



Knowing that Audubon gives an apparently careful dissection, 

 made by McGillivray, I did not take any note of my dissection. 

 On referring to the book, however, I was surprised to find no 

 allusion to the curious arrangement of the trachea in the male. 

 In the Swan and Whooping Crane the trachea makes a single 

 turn in the crest of the sternum, and in the Guans between the 

 skin and the pectoral muscles, but in the Courlan it forms a sort 

 of knot before entering the thorax, about half-way down the neck. 

 This does not present precisely the same arrangement in every 

 specimen, the number of turns and the extent of these varying 

 slightly. One at present before me is about an inch in diameter, 

 and an incision made across the centre of it would divide the tra- 

 chea six times. 



Grus Canadensis. In a former communication I stated that 

 the Sand-hill Crane begins to breed about the 1st of March. I 

 have since then ascertained that it sometimes breeds much ear- 

 lier. On the 11th of March a young bird was brought to me, 

 which already stood nearly two feet in height ; it was covered 

 with down of a ferruginous color above and cinereous below ; the 

 tarsi were of a reddish-brown color. The naked skin on the 

 head was of the same relative extent as in the adult, the bill much 

 shorter, and the eyes large and projecting, the whole bird looking 

 very much like a miniature ostrich. The feathers covering the 

 body were about an inch in length, hidden by the down ; the 

 quills were about two inches in length. The young remain with 

 their parents until fully grown, and are fed for a long time by 

 regurgitation. They do not fly until they are as large as their 

 parents, but run with great speed, and hide like a young par- 

 tridge. A nest found on the 11th of March contained two eggs 

 in which incubation had just commenced ; another found on the 

 15th contained two fresh eggs, and a third on the same date con- 

 tained two eggs nearly hatched. This is another of the birds whose 

 geographical distribution is especially interesting. It is found 

 breeding all through the lower part of the peninsula of Florida, 

 and again in Wisconsin and the Northwest, none being found in 

 the intermediate region except when migrating. 



