236 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



tact with her body seems incredible. But if wofully poor 

 nest-builders, and painfully awkward brooders, they are 

 attentive parents, and as long as the young herons are de- 

 pendent, they are by no means neglected. 



Among the changes in fauna that have occurred 

 within historic times, the disappearance of the cranes 

 should here be noted. Dr. Turnbull, in his " Birds of 

 East Pennsylvania and New Jersey," remarks : " The 

 Whooping-crane (Grus Americanus) may be said to have 

 disappeared, not even a straggler having been seen for 

 some years. It likewise seems to have been once very 

 plentiful ; for we read in Hakluyt's * Voyages,' edition 

 1589, folio 729, that Captain Philip Amadas and his fel- 

 low-adventurers, who visited and explored the coast in the 

 year 1584, < having discharged their harquebus-shot, such a 

 flocke of Cranes (the most part white) arose, with such a 

 crye, redoubled by many echoes, as if an armie of men 

 had showted altogether.' " 



On page 230 I have given Kalm's remarks on the 

 former occurrence of cranes in New Jersey, and referred 

 them to the sand-hill crane of the "Western States. Dr. 

 Turnbull considers that the Swedish naturalist referred 

 more particularly to the whooping crane. This may pos- 

 sibly be true ; for, as Dr. Turnbull remarks, it was known 

 to breed in Cape May County, in Wilson's and Audu- 

 bon's time, and stragglers have been seen as recently as 

 1857. It is more than probable, however, that both spe- 

 cies were once abundant, and the sand-hill crane the more 

 abundant of the two. 



