148 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
Mr. Mcllwraith in his Birds of Ontario gives two instances of the 
breeding of this species in southwestern Ontario and mentions the 
killing of another specimen at Rondeau, Lake Erie, in 1869. 
I have carefully read Mr. Seton’s account of Grus mexicana in his 
Birds of Manitoba, and am of the opinion that some of his ‘‘sandhill 
cranes’’ were Grus canadensis. Indeed in quoting Dr. Coues he says 
that he (Coues) found this species breeding west of Pembina when 
in reality Dr. Coues says it was the brown crane he found there. 
See Coues on Birds of Dakota and Montana, page 646. It is possible, 
however, that Dr. Coues gave the wrong name to his species. 
In my earlier explorations I was mislead in this same way by 
both cranes being called ‘‘sandhill cranes.”’ In 1872 a specimen 
of this species was caught with a lasso by one of our men, who ran 
him down, when moulting in August of that year. This specimen 
was much heavier than the 10 lb. specimens of Mr. Seton. Richard- 
son’s specimen, killed on Great Slave lake in 1822, was forty-eight 
inches long, so that it was certainly this species also. Fannin and 
Brooks say that it is a summer resident in southern British Columbia, 
but chiefly east of the Coast range, though not so common as the 
little brown crane which is, however, chiefly a migrant. Brooks 
found G. mexicana breeding in suitable localities in the Cariboo 
district. 
BREEDING NotTes.—The sandhill crane comes to southern Mani- 
toba about the end of April, circling around high in the blue and 
uttering its peculiar call. When mating it repairs to some hillock 
or knoll and executes a sort of war dance by dancing around and 
flapping its huge wings. It usually breeds on some tussock of 
decaying vegetation in a marsh, building quite a large nest of moss 
and rushes. I have never seen more than two eggs in the nest 
These are shaped and coloured very much like those of the loon, 
though perhaps, a little more pointed. The young leave the nest 
almost immediately after hatching. They are clothed with a thick 
ferruginous down, and have legs about four inches long. If caught 
when very young they are easily tamed, readily eating bread or 
scraps of meat, and are of great service to a gardener. I have seen 
one about a month old go down a line of onions and take up every 
cut-worm from their roots, as if an inch and a half of mould were 
perfectly transparent. After the young are fully grown they gather 
