. . . The crane the giant, with 

 his trompes soune. 



CHAUCER * 



III J A giant of beauty and grandeur 



In the journal of Meriwether Lewis, under date of April 11, 

 1805, there is this entry: ". . .we killed two geese, and saw some 

 cranes, the largest bird of that kind common to the Missouri and 

 Mississippi, perfectly white except the large feathers on the first 

 joint of the wing, which are black." The location was just above 

 the mouth of the Little Missouri River, in what is now Dunn 

 County, North Dakota. These birds were undoubtedly whooping 

 cranes, possibly a migrant pair moving north from wintering 

 grounds on the Texas Gulf Coast. At that time, a century and a 

 half ago, the continental population of Grus americana was rela- 

 tively undisturbed. During the breeding season they ranged from 

 northern Illinois northwestward across the Prairie Provinces of 

 Canada and far into Northwest Territories. In winter they scat- 

 tered out across the broad spread of the entire continent, from 

 the vicinity of Cape May, New Jersey, and the river deltas of 

 the South Carolina and Georgia coasts to Louisiana, Texas, and 

 * Canterbury Tales. 



29 



