C IT. Mcil'ldin — /!/'n/s <if ( 'oiiiii <-tii-iit. 1 |;{ 



219. Ardetta exilis ((^molin) Cray. I.oast BitU'iii. 



Tlie Least nitti'ni stH'ins to Ik', :it iircscnf. a |irctly rcniihir ^iiiiiiiii'r 

 ivsitlont, tliouu'li foniu'rly rciiardcil as an accidental \isiti)r. I/nislc\ 

 U'avc it from Nortlitovd, Conn., witliout cuninunl. It lias ccitainly 

 bred here for several years past, and on June 27tli, isTC, .Mr. Nidi. .is 

 found its nest at Iji'anford, (\)iui.,.c()ntaininy,- (inc I'rcsli eou-. IIa\t' 

 seen it in Se|)teiul)er. Tliey were particadarly altundant tlintUi;li(Mit 

 the State durino- the season of 1 S7a. .Air. W. W. ('<ie, who luis seven 

 beautiful specinu'iis in his cabinet, showecl nie live e^-js which he 

 took from a nest at Porthuid, Conn., June 14th, 187;^, and sa\s thai 

 they breed regularly in that vicinity. .Mi-. Geo. Bird (iriiniell als.. 

 tells me that he takes two oi- three every year (geiieralh in August 

 or September). They follow^ up the Connectient Valli'y to Massa- 

 chusetts (Sutiield, Conn., July, E. T. Shores). 



Note. — The Sand-hill Crane, Gms Canadensis (Linne) Tenmi., 

 though not occiirring in New England at the present time, even as a 

 rare straggler, was once common here. Tlumias i\b)rton, writing of 

 the birds of New England, in 1032, says, of " Cranes, there are gn-ate 

 store, that even more came there at S. Davids day, and not before : 

 that day they never would misse. These sometimes eate our corne, 

 and doe pay for their presumption well enough ; and serveth tliere in 

 powther, with turnips to supply the place of ])owthered beefe, ami is 

 a goodly bird in a dishe, and no disconnnodity."* The fact that 

 they ate corn, and. were themselves, in turn, eaten by the inhabitants, 

 clearly shows, as Prof. J. A. Allen has said, "that the Crane, aiul not 

 a Heron, is the bird to which reference is made."f Moreover, Samuel 

 Williams, more than an hundred and fifty years later (in 1704), says 

 that the Sand-hill Crane {'■'■ Ardea (kiitadensis'''') was anu)ng the 

 commonest of the " Water F'owl" found in Vermont at that tinie.J 

 Belknap also gives it, in 1792, as one of the birds of New Ilampshire.J^ 

 And even so recently as 1842, Zadock Thom]»sou wrote that the 

 Whooping Crane, Gms Americana (Linne) Temmiiu-k, was "occa- 

 sionally seen during its migrations,"! in Vermont. 



*New English Canaan. Printed by Charles Greene, 1632. Reprinted in Force's 

 Historical Tracts, vol. ii, Tract 5, pp. 47-8. 



fBull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, vol. i, No. 3, p. 58. Sept., 187(3. 



X The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, p. 119. 1794. 



§ The History of New Hampshire, vol. iii. By Jeremy Belknap, p. 1G9. 1792. 



II History of Vermont, p. lO.T. IS 12. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. IV. 15 Al:«., 1877. 



