gg WHOOPING CRANE. 



legs being red; like those of the present, the year old birds are 

 said also to be tawny. 



It is highly probable that the species described by naturalists 

 as the Brown Crane (Jlrdea Canadensis], is nothing more than 

 the young of the Whooping Crane,"* their descriptions exactly 

 corresponding with the latter. In a flock of six or eight, three 

 or four are usually of that tawny or reddish brown tint on the 

 back, scapulars and wing coverts, but are evidently yearlings 

 of the Whooping Crane, and differ in nothing but in that and size 

 from the others. They are generally five or six inches shorter, 

 and the primaries are of a brownish cast. 



The Whooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from 

 the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and when standing 

 erect measures nearly five feet; the bill is six inches long, and 

 an inch and a half in thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and 

 of a yellowish brown colour; the irides are yellow; the forehead, 

 whole crown and cheeks are covered with a warty skin thinly 

 interspersed with black hairs; these become more thickly set 

 towards the base of the bill; the hind head is of an ash colour; 

 the rest of the plumage pure white, the primaries excepted, 

 which are black; from the root of each wing rise numerous large 

 flowing feathers projecting over the tail and tips of the wings; 

 the uppermost of these are broad, drooping, and pointed at the 

 extremities, some of them are also loosely webbed, their silky 

 fibres curling inwards like those of the ostrich. They seem to 

 occupy the place of the tertials. The legs and naked part of the 

 thighs are black, very thick and strong; the hind toe seems rare- 

 ly or never to reach the hard ground, though it may probably 

 assist in preventing the bird from sinking too deep in the mire. 



* This is an error into which our author was led in censequence of never hav- 

 ing seen a specimen of the bird in question (1rdea Canaden&is, LINN. Grus 

 Freti Hudsonis, BRISS.) Peale's museum at present contains a fine specimen, 

 which was brought by the naturalists attached to Major Long'* exploring party, 

 who ascended the Missouri in the year 1820. Bartram calls this Crane the Gnu 

 ptatensis. It is known to travellers by the name of Sandhill Cran*. 



