SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED 481 



Emmons, in his list of Massachusetts birds, pubHshed in 

 1833, marks the Whooping Crane as a rare but regular visit- 

 ant, breeding in this climate.^ In his list this is generally 

 taken to mean that the bird breeds in Massachusetts, and 

 possibly it may have bred here in earlier years, but there is no 

 reason to believe that it bred here at the time Emmons's list 

 was made, although it then bred and has since summered in 

 several States to the westward. I am told by Mr. Ralph Hol- 

 man that an old hunter living near Worcester, Mass., claimed 

 to have killed a Whooping Crane in Worcester County in his 

 early youth, but as the bird was not preserved, and as all wit- 

 nesses are dead, it is impossible to investigate the statement. 



De Kay (1844) includes it in his list of birds of New York, 

 but says that he never saw it in the State. ^ 



Whether some of the Cranes that were found by the early 

 explorers along the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine were 

 of this species it is impossible now to determine definitely, but 

 Champlain (1615) found this species in the region about the 

 eastern part of Lake Ontario, for he says, " there are also 

 many cranes, white as swans," ^ 



Dr. Thompson, in his Natural History of Vermont (1842), 

 says that this bird is known in Vermont only by being seen 

 occasionally during its migrations, but that it is common 

 in summer in the fur countries, where it breeds.^ 



Cranes were found about Hudson Bay by the early ex- 

 plorers, and this seems to indicate that their line of flight in 

 the east was from Hudson Bay to New England, and from 

 there down the Atlantic coast. The White Crane may never 

 have bred in Massachusetts and may never have existed in 

 the State in large numbers. 



Dr. J. A. Allen, who has made a study of the history of 

 the birds of Massachusetts, says that this bird was " perhaps " 

 formerly an inhabitant of the State. Whether or not it ever 

 bred here there can be no doubt that it passed through this 

 region in migration. 



1 Hitchcock, Edward: Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology of Massachu- 

 setts, 1833, p. 549. 



2 De Kay, James E.: Natural History of New York, Part I, Zoology, Ornithology, 1844, p. 218. 



3 Champlain, Samuel de: Voyages, Pub. Prince Soc, 1882, Vol. Ill, p. 126. 

 * Thompson, Zadock: History of Vermont, 1842, Part 1, p. 103. 



