140 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



vast plains stretch hundreds of miles, and on the 

 west high into the sky rise ragged mountains. 

 When I was first there the sound of a gun was 

 almost unheard on this wide area, and the sand- 

 hill crane, fat and lazy on cottonseed and corn, 

 swung here and there across the scene with an 

 easy grace that gave little indication of how sharp 

 he could be when ^' wanted." Along the horizon 

 his tribe streamed in thousands, now almost 

 white against the background of bare mountains, 

 now bluish where they sailed low along the top of 

 the corn or cotton so that the sun could play 

 upon their backs, now dark where the course 

 lay across the sky that here smiles the winter 

 through. 



Here too, in greater numbers than I have ever 

 seen elsewhere, was the whooping-crane, beside 

 which the common sand-hill, with all his sharp- 

 ness, is but a gosling. Though sometimes found 

 in company with the sand-hill, the whooping- 

 crane is generally contented with himself and 

 keeps clear of all entangling alliances. He usu- 

 ally avoids the sand-hill, as if he did not think 

 him smart enough to associate with. Larger 

 than the other by some eight or ten inches in 



