618 THE WHOOPING CRANE, 
Recognition Marks.—Giant size; long neck; long stout black tarsi; pure 
white coloration. 
Nesting.—Nest: of grasses, on ground in marsh. Eggs: 2 or 3, pale olive 
or light drab, spotted and blotched with reddish brown and with obscure purplish 
gray shell-markings. Av. size, 4.00 x 2.50 (101.6 x 63.5). 
General Range.—‘Interior of North America from the Fur Countries to 
Florida, Texas, and Mexico, and from Ohio to Colorado. Formerly on the 
Atlantic Coast, at least casually, to New England” (A. O. U. Check List, 
2nd Ed.). Is believed to be seeking refuge of late in unfrequented regions west 
of the Rockies. 
Range in Washington.—Reported as summer resident in the Big Bend 
country (western plateau of Douglas County) and as migrant in Yakima County. 
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 484. 
IT would overtax the patience of those who believe that there is no bird 
but a dead bird, if we reported the Whooping Crane as a citizen of Washing- 
ton solely on the strength of a flock observed by the author in Yakima County 
(May 2, 1908) and studied under binoculars at a range of five miles. But 
there is corroborative testimony from ranchers in both Yakima and Douglas 
Counties. A young farmer, whose attention I called to the flock as it 
rose slowly against the brown background of the Ahtanum Range, assured 
me that his father had killed one of three White Cranes some four or 
five years previous, and that it stood as high as his head when held up. 
Several ranchers in the Big Bend country testify that great white cranes 
come in spring and light in their stubble fields. They are familiar with 
the Sandhill Crane, and unite in declaring that these birds are white and 
that they stand higher than a man’s head. Mr. LeRoy Benson assures 
me that several have been shot and eaten in the neighborhood of Moses 
Coulee, where his brother-in-law once winged a specimen and pursued it for 
half a day. I am thus explicit because there is no account of the occurrence 
of this now rare species west of the Rocky Mountains, save some uncertain 
records from southern Oregon. It would appear probable that these majestic 
birds are being driven by persecution from their former range on the Great 
Plains, and that they are seeking asylum with us. If so they should be as 
rigidly protected as buffaloes under similar circumstances. Spread the word 
that the Whooping Crane is not to be killed, save to the irreparable detriment 
of the race—our race, as well as that of the birds. 
