2/6 GRUID^E : CRANES. 



FAMILY GRUID^: CRANES. 



GREAT WHITE, OR WHOOPING CRANE. 

 GRUS AMERICANA (L.) Temm. 



Chars. Of great stature, and the adult with the plumage pure white, 

 with black primaries, primary coverts and alula ; bill dusky 

 greenish ; legs black ; bald part of head red, the sparse hair-like 

 feathers black. Length about 50.00 ; extent, 90.00 ; wing, 24.00 ; 

 tail, 9.00 ; tarsus, 12.00 ; middle toe, 5.00 ; bill, 6.00. 



Cranes are birds of great size, standing especially 

 high on the legs. The general build is something like 

 that of Herons, with which they are generally associ- 

 ated in the popular mind ; but they belong to a different 

 order, Alcctorides, their true relationships being with the 

 Rails, Gallinules and Coots, not with the Herons, Ibises 

 and Storks. 



There are three North American species, two of 

 which have been found in New England. 



In his interesting article on the " Decrease of Birds in 

 Massachusetts" (Bull. Nutt. Club, i, 1876, pp. 53, 58), 

 New England's greatest ornithologist, Allen, speaks 

 of the Brown or Sandhill Crane, and perhaps the White 

 or Whooping Crane, as having formerly inhabited Mass- 

 achusetts, though extirpated at so early a date that they 

 had not been previously recognized as belonging to the 

 fauna of that State. 



" In all the early notices of the natural productions of 

 New England, the Crane is mentioned among the few 

 birds usually enumerated. Emmons [1833] gives the 



