THE SANDHILL CRANE. Bi 
In flight these Cranes flap, with laborious majesty, being heavy upon the 
wing. They move in single file with an old male in the lead, or else flank 
him on either side, forming thus great V’s or U’s. In starting, they leap 
to wing with a great effort, and require a number of widening circles in 
which to get fairly under way. 
In the spring these gracefully ungainly birds indulge in curious antics 
of courtship. The male bows with outstretched wings and nearly touches 
the ground with his beak in the extremity of his devotion. The female 
returns the bow with respect quite as profound, and then they indulge an 
absurd minuet, swaying, dancing, leaping, and executing high kicks with 
an entrancing degree of awkwardness. There is no privacy about this phase 
of courtship, and twenty birds at once may join the giddy whirl which 
seals the fate of so many young hearts. 
Perhaps it was a young bird I once saw, in August, adventuring to 
wade at the edge of the Yakima River. The bed of the stream was covered 
with rounded stones, among which the young Crane made poor shift. Once 
he stumbled outright and fell souse into the water; after which he made 
off with very uncranely language on his mandibles. On the other hand I 
have seen Cranes alight in fir-trees on Puget Sound, and manage it quite 
nicely. There is reason to believe that arboreal life plays a larger and larger 
part in the stealthy domestic economy of birds on the West-side. 
Prior to leaving the breeding grounds for the winter season, the 
Cranes are said to assemble for a stately promenade, which is the ‘‘swell” 
function of the year. When the clan is fully assembled, and after much 
preliminary sociability, the great company takes to wing and rises in ma- 
jestic circles. These spirals are continued until a considerable height is 
attained with a great ado of sonorous croaking, a solemn leave-taking of 
the happy scenes of youth, after which the birds move southward. 
Sandhill Cranes are to be found, not only in the bunch-grass_ hills 
and sage-covered uplands, but in mountain meadows of both the Cascade 
and Olympic Mountains, and upon the lesser prairies which dot the western 
forest. 
Their food consists of grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, lizards, snakes, 
and young sage-rats, supplemented in season by some of the hardier berries. 
It requires but a moment’s reflection to see that the birds are highly useful. 
Indeed, Nelson tells us that the natives at the mouth of the Yukon raise the 
young of the related species, G. canadensis, and keep them about camp be- 
cause of their usefulness in keeping down vermin. 
