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Florence Merriam Bailey.



DICK, THE SANDHILL CRANE.


[With acknowledgments to the Editor of ‘ Bird-Lore.’]


The following story told me by Mrs. William Derby, of

Garibaldi, Oregon, of a pet Sandhill Crane that she had in Nebraska

in 1879, is interesting not only as a realistic picture of the bird’s

habits in domestication, but for the hints it gives of the play

instinct, sense of humour, and general Crane psychology.— Florence

Merriam Bailey.


“ They ketched him when they was out on the prairie—they’d

been out at Swan Lake elk hunting. He was hid in the high grass,

and the old crane, he skulked off. They got out and picked him up

—he w T as nothin’ but a downy feller. They ketched frogs and

cut up and give him. When they got home we’d ben off on a

clam hunt, and w 7 e fed him on clams till the corn w T as ripe in

the fall.


“ He had peeped for four days under a box, and then I took

him down fishin’. He just jumped up and down and hollered—

seemed as if he laughed. He jumped up and down in the water

to w'ash himself, and then, when he was through, he was ready to

leave the country—he went just as hard as he could go toward the

corn-field, and me after him. He ran onto a turkey hen, and she

knocked him into a bunch of cactus. He turned right ’round and

come for me then, peeping as hard as he could peep. I took him

up in my arms and carried him back to the house and laid him

down on the grass, and he come and sat by me. He never offered

to run again—would foller just like a dog.


“ That was June. In August we built our sod-house. It took me

about five weeks to haul the sod—we had a pair of steers I was

breakin’—I was fifteen then. I’d get my sod loaded and Dick

would walk along with me. I’d say, ‘ Dick, let’s run, have a race ;

and he’d hustle around to get him a grasshopper—native grass¬

hoppers, big fellers. I’d say, ‘ Now Dick, you ready ? ’ And he’d

say, Peep. Sometimes he’d kind o’ help himself with his wings,

tiptoe along, and he’d beat me to the team. Then he’d stick up his

head, straight up, and laugh —sounded more like a person than any-



