Whooping Crane 329 



ern parts of their range they are strictly migratory, while in the more southern 

 portions they are less or not at all so. By some students they are referred to 

 only one or two genera, while by others they are divided, mainly on external 

 characters, into nine or more. It is clearly a very ancient group, since no less 

 than seventeen fossil forms have been described, the oldest of which comes 

 apparently from the Eocene of England with half a dozen or more nominal 

 species found in the Eocene and later horizons of North America. 



Whooping Crane. We may begin the detailed consideration of the Cranes 

 with the typical and largest genus (Grus), which embraces more than a third 

 of the species, three well-marked forms of which are found in North America, 

 the largest being the Whooping Crane (G. americana). This magnificent bird 

 is from fifty to fifty-four inches in length and has a spread of wings of about 

 ninety-two inches. In the mature bird the plumage is pure white throughout, 

 with the exception of the quills which are black, while in the young the white 

 is overlaid by patches of rusty, especially above. In the young bird the head 

 is feathered, but when it has attained maturity the cheeks as well as the entire 

 crown are bare, this character being sometimes made the basis of a generic 

 separation. The \Vhooping Crane is practically confined to the central portion 

 of the country, ranging north as far as the Saskatchewan, and spending the 

 winter in the marshes and swamps of Florida, Texas, and central Mexico. Its 

 principal avenue of travel is the Mississippi Valley, and it rarely wanders far 

 from this track. In former days it probably enjoyed a much wider distribution, 

 for according to Alexander Wilson, one of America's pioneer ornithologists, 

 it once nested at Cape May, New Jersey, but its great size and conspicuously 

 white plumage made it a too tempting mark, and it has been forced to seek 

 wilder and more open country. It feeds largely upon vegetable substances, 

 such as roots of the water-lily and other aquatic plants, and in its winter home 

 is said to be fond of frequenting fields where corn, peas, sweet potatoes, etc., 

 have been grown, where it picks up. such as may have been accidentally left, 

 and it also feeds on aquatic insects, frogs, reptiles, and field mice. Although 

 a few pairs may still stop in the Northern Central States to rear their young, the 

 main body pass farther north. Mr. Ernest E. Thompson (now r Thompson 

 Seton) reports it as a tolerably common migrant, but a rare summer resident 

 in Manitoba, where it is locally known as the "Flying Sheep," while according 

 to Sir John Richardson, it frequents every part of the fur countries. "It mi- 

 grates," he says, "in flocks, performing its journeys at night and at such an 

 altitude that its passage is known only by the peculiarly shrill screams which 

 it utters. ... It rises with difficulty from the ground, flying low for a time, and 

 affording a fair mark to the sportsman; but if not entirely disabled by a shot, 

 fights with great determination, and can inflict very severe wounds with its 

 formidable bill." Instances have been known of this bird driving its bill deep 

 into the bowels of a hunter when not successful in warding off its blow. The 

 nest is said to be placed in a marsh and the eggs, apparently two in number, 

 are grayish white sparsely marked, especially at the larger end, with bold patches 

 of dark rusty brown. 



