127 Rusty 



have. From the all too few descriptions in the literature of wild 

 nestings, we knew something of the general classification of the 

 nesting site and the appearance of the nest and eggs. The record 

 showed that they had been nesting in Grant County, Minnesota, 

 in 1876; Franklin County, Iowa, in 1882; Hancock County Iowa, 

 in 1894 (the last U.S. nesting on record); and Saskatchewan in 

 1922, the last observed nesting anywhere. There were also other 

 locations, less adequately described. As to the nest-side behavior 

 of the cranes themselves we knew nothing at all, except the way 

 in which they had conducted themselves when disturbed and, 

 in some of the older narratives, the way they had behaved when 

 shot at! Here, then, was a real opportunity to learn something 

 entirely new about a rare species. 



This first Aransas nest was a flat mound constructed chiefly out 

 of salt-flat grass, with some strands of cattail leaves and sea 

 oxeye (Borrichia frutescens). When we measured it some time 

 later it had an outside diameter of 180 by 184 centimeters (about 

 5 feet 10 inches by 6 feet). The extreme height was 25.4 centi- 

 meters (about 10 inches). It was well hidden in a dense growth 

 of narrow-leaved cattail, and more or less surrounded by water 

 that varied from 30 centimeters (about 12 inches) on April 30 

 to only 1 or 2 inches by May 23. 



A careful record was kept of the minute-to-minute activities 

 of both Pete and Jo. They took turns at incubating, and at first 

 there were usually six nest reliefs during the daylight hours. As the 

 weather grew warmer these reliefs increased until they averaged 

 between seven and eight through the day. Pete was a very good 

 partner and actually spent more time on the eggs during the day 

 than Jo, averaging two hours at a spell to her one and one-half 

 hours. Over-all, Pete assumed more than 70 per cent of diurnal 

 incubation duties. Larry Walkinshaw found that a male sandhill 

 crane was on the eggs nearly 63 per cent of one morning period 

 during which such observations were possible. We were unable 

 to watch them at night, but it is believed that the female does 

 most of the night brooding while the male stands guard. 



The incubating bird was so well hidden when sitting on the 

 nest that had we not known just where to look, and had the ad- 



