WHOOPING CRANE. 313 



lant, so that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be shot. They 

 sometimes rise in the air spirally to a great height, the mingled noise of 

 their screaming, even when they are almost beyond the reach of sight, 

 resembling that of a pack of hounds in full cry. On these occasions 

 they fly around in large circles, as if reconnoitring the country to a vast 

 extent for a fresh quarter to feed in. Their flesh is said to be well tasted, 

 nowise savoring of fish. They swallow mice, moles, rats, &c., with great 

 avidity. They build their nests on the ground, in tussocks of long grass, 

 amidst solitary swamps, raise it to more than a foot in height, and lay 

 two pale blue eggs, spotted with brown. These are much larger, and 

 of a more lengthened form, than those of the common hen. 



The Cranes are distinguished from the other families of their genus 

 by the comparative baldness of their heads, the broad flag of plumage 

 projecting over the tail, and in general by their superior size. They 

 also difi"er in their internal organization from all the rest of the Heron 

 tribe, particularly in the conformation of the windpipe, which enters 

 the breast bone in a cavity fitted to receive it, and after several turns 

 goes out again at the same place, and thence descends to the lungs. 

 Unlike the Herons, they have not the inner side of the middle claw pec- 

 tinated, and, in this species at least, the hind toe is short, scarcely 

 reachinff the ground. 



The vast marshy flats of Siberia are inhabited by a Crane very much 

 resembling the present, with the exception of the bill and legs being 

 red ; like those of the present, the year old birds are said also to be 

 tawny. 



It is highly probable that the species described by naturalists as the 

 Brown Crane [Ardea Canadensis), is nothing more than the young of 

 the Whooping Crane,* their descriptions exactly corresponding with 

 the latter. In a flock of six or eight, three or four are usually of that 

 tawny or reddish brown tint on the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, 

 but are evidently yearlings of the Whooping Crane, and diflfer in nothing 

 but in that and size from the others. They are generally five or six 

 inches shorter, and the primaries are of a brownish cast. 



The Whooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from the point 

 of the bill to the end of the tail, and when standing erect measures 

 nearly five feet; the bill is six inches long, and an inch and a half in 

 thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellowish brown color ; 

 the irides are yellow ; the forehead, whole crown and cheeks are covered 



* This is an error into which our author was led in consequence of never having 

 seen a specimen of the bird in question (Ardea Canadensis, Linn. — Grus Freti 

 Hudsonis, Briss.). Peale's Museum contained a fine specimen, which was brought 

 by the naturalists attached to Major Long's exploring party, who ascended the Mis- 

 souri in the year ISi). Bartram calls this Crane the Grus pralensis. It is known 

 to travellers by_ the name of Sandhill Crane. 



