ANDERSON — THE BIRDS OF IOWA. 205 



It is probable that the Little Brown Crane occurs as a migrant 

 in Iowa rather more connnonly than has been supposed, its close 

 resemblance to the Sandhill Crane making their confusion easy. 



79. (206). Gnis inexicana (Miill.). Sandhill Crane. 



The Sandhill Crane or Brown Crane is the commonest Crane in 

 Iowa. It formerly nested quite commonly in the marshes of north- 

 ern Iowa, where a few pairs still breed, and is still fairly com- 

 mon on the prairies as a migrant, though much less abundant than 

 before. Fifteen years ago flocks of hundreds, or even thous- 

 ands, were frequently seen trooping over cornfields and plowed 

 ground in the early spring in Winnebago and Hancock counties. 

 In the spring large flocks frequently perform graceful aerial evo- 

 lutions high over their feeding grounds, each bird soaring in 

 an ever ascending spiral until the birds are almost lost to view at 

 a great height, and only the faint echo of their loud, discordant 

 cries comes to the ear. 



Thomas Say (Long's Exp., i, 266-270) noted the species in Pot- 

 tawattamie county and at Engineers' Cantonment, arriving March 

 24, 1820; and Edwin James (ibid, ii, 67-68) noted large numbers 

 April 13, 1820, along Boyer Creek, Pottawattamie count}-, refer- 

 ring to their habit of removing the surface of the soil by scratch- 

 ing with their feet in search of the radical tubers of the pea-vine, 

 which seem to afford them a very palatable food. 



J. A. Allen (Mem. Bost. Soc, i, 1868, 501) states: "Saw several 

 in August stalking about on an uninhabited prairie, and often in 

 September, flying over at great heights. Said to breed abund- 

 antly in the marshes of the Skunk River country, near the middle 

 of the state." T. M. Trippe (Am. Nat., 1873, 346) describes the 

 migration of vast flocks in southern Iowa Nov. 10-12, 1872, just 

 prior to a storm; both species noted; also (Pr. Bost. Soc, xv, 

 1872, 740) "said to have bred in the marshes before the settle- 

 ment of the country" [Decatur and Mahaska]. John Krider 

 (Forty Years' Notes, 1879, 57) says: "I found them very plenty 

 in Iowa, breeding in May. I found the eggs late in June and 

 hatched them under a hen. ... I have found the young upon 

 the prairies, only one at a time, and not far distant I w^ould find 

 the other, and if put together they W'Ould fight." J.W. Preston, 

 (O. & O., xviii, 1893,81) describes the taking of several sets of 



[Proc. D. a. S., Vol. XI.] 29 [Oct. 2, 1906.] 



