290 



BRANCH CHORDATA 



The whooping or white crane is now very rare. A full-grown one is 

 4^ feet high. Hornaday says its trumpet call will carry as far as the roar of 

 a lion. The sand-hill or brown crane ranges from the Gulf to Manitoba. 

 The nests, of roots, rushes, and weeds, are made on the ground and usually 

 contain two eggs. Goss says '' during courtship and the early breeding sea- 

 son their actions and antics at times are ludicrous in the extreme, bowing 

 and leaping high in the air, hopping, skipping, and circling about with 

 drooping wings and croaking whoop, an almost indescribable dance and 



Fig. 237. Long-billed curlew ( Nume'nius longirtis'lris) ; 23 inches. (Photo- 

 graph from specimen.) 



din, in which the females (an exception to the rule) join, all working them- 

 selves up into a fever of excitement only equalled by an Indian war dance, 

 and, like the same, it only stops when the last one is exhausted." 



Order IX. Limic'olae. These are small or medium-sized birds, 

 usually brown or gray, with some white in their plumage. The 

 bill is long and slender and the legs spindling. Except in a 



