ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



721 



driven from pillar 

 to post for some 

 days, and will be 

 fortunate indeed if 

 they escape with- 

 o u t some injury. 

 The safest way to 

 establish a crane 

 family is to place 

 all of the intended 

 members in the en- 

 closure at the same 

 time; then none 

 can use the pres- 



t i g e of previous 



fe_^ ^S^^^wf^ ''' occupancy as an 



.^-.-JtSBfjr - - excuse for tyran- 



WHOOPING CRANE. ".V- Brought to- 



gether in this 

 abrupt manner, the birds will soon learn to tol- 

 erate each other. 

 * * * * * 



The Order Gruiformes i n - 

 eludes, besides the true cranes, six 

 groups of remarkable birds, such 

 as the sun-bittern, the kagu and 

 the seriema, which have been as- 

 signed to this order in lieu of a 

 better place. Their structures are 

 confusing, and their relationships 

 obscure. The birds with which 

 we are to deal here are divided in- 

 to nineteen species, which form 

 the Sub-order Grues, and are cos- 

 mopolitan, with the exception that 

 none are found in South America. 

 Asia is particularly fortunate in 

 being the Iiome jt seven species. 

 Some of these b rds are fairly 

 easy to obtain alive ; but most of them are far 

 from common in captivity, and a few are seen 

 rarely, if ever. 



At present, nine siseeies, all of which possess 

 characters of interest, are included in the Zoo- 

 logical Park collection. Several of these are 

 members of the genus Grus, which includes the 

 three species of North American cranes. 



The Sandhill Crane, (G. mexicaiia), still is 

 fairh' common on tlie plains of western North 

 America, where there is little cover to shelter 

 skulking enemies. This is the most numerous 

 of our cranes and therefore the best known. It 

 is rather small, as compared with most of its 

 relatives, its length being about forty-six inches ; 

 its color is a uniform slaty graj-, with the bare 

 skin of the crown reddish. In captivity this 

 crane becomes delightfully tame, and is very 



ASIATIC WHITE CRANE 



hardy and long-lived. This species nested in the 

 Zoological Park in IPOi and 1905, but the eggs 

 proved infertile on both occasions. 



Tlie Little Brown Crane, (G. canadensis), is a 

 verj' close relative of the sandhill, and is distin- 

 guished by its smaller size, and shorter tarsus. 

 It breeds through Arctic America and Siberia, 

 migrating to the western United States and 

 Mexico for the winter. The inaccessibility of 

 its habitat explains its long confusion with the 

 sandhill, and also accounts for its scarcity in 

 captivity. The species is not represented in the 

 collection at present. 



The third and rarest of the American Grues 

 is the beautiful M-hooping crane, (G. americana) . 

 It is pure white in general color, but the pri- 

 maries are black and the bare portions of the 

 head are reddish, bordered posteriorly by a 

 patch of blackish feathers. The secondaries 

 are curved downward and arch gracefully over 

 the tail. No doubt, the great 

 scarcity of this bird is due, in 

 part, to reckless shooting, but it 

 seems probable that the invasion 

 of settlers into its breeding 

 grounds in tlie great middle ter- 

 ritories of Canada, and the in- 

 creasing cultivation along its mi- 

 gration route through the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, are hastening the 

 ine\'itable extermination of this 

 finest American birds. The nu- 

 merical condition of a species in 

 the wild state generally bears an 

 exact ratio to the frequency with 

 which it is met in confinement; it 

 is probable that the number of 

 whoopers in captivity could be 

 counted on the fingers of one 

 hand. It is unfortunate that this splendid 

 crane cannot be in- 

 duced to follow the 

 example of the 

 wood duck, which is 

 willing to save it- 

 self from extermi- 

 nation by breeding 

 freely in captivity. 

 ]\Iost of the wood 

 ducks seen in Amer- 

 ican collections are 

 birds bred in Eu- 

 rope ! But cranes 

 of most species are 

 bred only on rare 

 occasions and then 

 with great difBcul- 



Cootinued on page 734 



PARADISE CRANE. 



