268 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



difficult to procure. They subsist principally on frogs, insects, snails and 

 mice, in fact are rather omnivorous feeders. Cranes nest on the wide 

 unfrequented plains and marshes of the Northwest, in America, and are 

 fast being driven to the more remote mountains and arctic marshes. The 

 eggs are usually two in number, of a brownish drab color, irregularly spotted 

 with different shades of brown. The shell is quite rough with warty eleva- 

 tions. The young are covered with down and run about soon after hatching, 

 but are fed for some time by the parents. 



Grus americana (Linnaeus) 



Whooping Crane 



Ardea americana Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. lo. 1758. 1:142 

 Grus americana DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 218 



A. O.'U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 404 



grus, Lat., a crane; america'na, American 



Description. Plumage white, except the wing quills which are hlack; 

 the bare skin of the head carmine red with a growth of black hairs; bill 

 dusky greenish; legs black; eyes yellow. Young: Head feathered; general, 

 color whitish, washed with rusty brown. 



Length 50-54 inches; extent 90; wing 22-25; "tail 9; bill 5.5-6; depth 

 at base 1.4; tarsus 11-12; middle toe and claw 5. 



The home of this bird is in the interior of North America from Minnesota 

 and Dakota to Slave lake and south in winter to Florida, Texas and Mexico. 

 In colonial times it was evidently common in the Atlantic States as far as 

 New Jersey, New York and New England, but there are no definite records 

 for New York in recent times. I was told that a specimen of this bird, 

 mounted about 15 }-ears ago at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in 

 Rochester, N. Y., was killed near Cayuga lake, but I have been unable to 

 trace the specimen. In recent years its line of migration lies almost wholly 

 west of Lake Michigan. 



DeVries in his Journal, describing the country of New Netherlands, 

 mentions White cranes as occurring (1639-42) with the swans, geese 

 and ducks which swarmed on the coast of New York bay [see N. Y. Hist. 

 Soc. Col. 2, 3, 1 10]. 



