CRANES 229 



VIII. ORDER PALUDICOL^S. CRANES, RAILS, ETC. 



21. FAMILY GRUID^B. CRANES. (Fig. 40.) 



The Cranes number nineteen species, of which three are North 

 American, while the remaining sixteen inhabit the Old World. They 

 frequent plains and marshes, and are omnivorous feeders, eating frogs, 

 lizards, field-mice, snakes, etc., and various kinds of vegetable food. 

 Our species migrate in flocks, but are solitary rather than gregarious 

 at other times of the year. Their voice is loud and resonant. Unlike 

 the Herons, they fly with the neck fully extended. The nest is placed 

 in the ground, and the eggs number two or, rarely, three. The young, 

 again unlike Herons, are born covered with down and leave the nest 

 shortly after birth. 



204. Grus americana (Linn.}. WHOOPING CRANE. Ad. Top of 

 head, lores and sides of the throat dull red, with a thin growth of black 

 'hairs'; primaries black, rest of the plumage white. Im. Similar, but 

 whole head feathered, and plumage more or less washed with buffy ochra- 

 ceous. L., 50-00; W., 25*00; Tar., ll'SO; B., 5'00. 



Range. N. Am. Bred formerly from N. Mackenzie s. to Ills, and Iowa; 

 now mainly restricted to s. Mackenzie and n. Sask. ; in migration, formerly 

 not rare on the Atlantic coast from New England to Fla. and casual west to 

 Colo, and Idaho; winters from the western Gulf States to cen. Mex. 



SE. Minn., T. V., Mch 3. 



Nest, an islet of grasses and weed stalks, in marshy places. Eggs, 2, 

 olive-gray, spotted and blotched with distinct and obscure cinnamon- 

 brown markings, 4*00 x 2*50. Date, Dubuque, Iowa, Apl. 25, 1868. 



This is now one of the rarest of North American birds. There are 

 no recent records of its nesting. "In flight their long necks and stiltlike 

 legs are stretched out in a line with the body to the full extent, moving 

 strongly with slowly beating wings, but not swiftly, . . . often cir- 

 cling spiral-like to a great height. They occasionally bunch up, and I 

 have seen them in triangular form; but as a rule they travel in single 

 file, following their leader in a wavy line, croaking as they go, like 

 hounds upon a cold trail." (Goss). 



The LITTLE BROWN CRANE (205. Grus canadensis) breeds from Hudson 

 Bay to Alaska, and winters in Texas and Mexico. There are but two instances 

 of its occurrence east of the Mississippi (Rhode Island and South Carolina). 

 It resembles G. mexicana, but is smaller; W., 18*50; B., 4*10. 



206. Grus mexicana (Mull}. SANDHILL CRANE. (Fig. 40.) Ad. 

 Whole top of the head to below the eyes covered with rough, minutely 

 warty, dull reddish skin thinly grown with short, black 'hairs'; plumage 

 brownish gray, with more or less silvery gray and buffy ochraceous. Im. 

 Similar, but whole head feathered, and with more buffy ochraceous in the 

 plumage. "L., 40'00-48'00; W., 21'83; Tar., 10'25; B., 5'47" (Ridgw.). 



Range. N. A. Resident in La. and Fla.; bred, formerly, from s. 

 B. C., Sask., Man., and w. Ont. s. to Calif., Colo., Nebr., Ills., and Ohio; 

 formerly in migration e. to New England; now rare e. of the Miss., except in 

 Fla., and rare as a breeder in the s. half of its former breeding range; winters 

 from Calif., Tex., and La. s. to Mex. 



Washington, A. V., one record. SE. Minn., T. V., Mch. 29. 



