332 The Crane-like Birds 



The nest of the Sandhill Crane is situated on the ground, sometimes in a 

 marsh, but often in a perfectly dry location, being usually placed among rank- 

 growing vegetation, which partially conceals it, yet does not wholly interfere with 

 the vision of the occupant. The eggs are usually two in number, their average 

 size being about four by two and a half inches, and their color olive-brown or 

 drab, spotted with darker brown and purplish gray. The nestlings are covered 

 at first with a soft, dense down, bright rusty on the upper parts and pale grayish 

 on the lower. They are said to be unable to fly until they are nearly as large 

 as their parents, whom they follow about until able to take wing, escaping 

 pursuit and danger meanwhile by running and hiding. When taken quite 

 small they are easily tamed and are said to make engaging pets, though some- 

 what dangerous on acepunt of their propensity to use their sharp bills. 



Little Brown Crane. Hardly to be distinguished from the last except in 

 size is the Little Brown Crane (G. canadensis) of the extreme northern portions 

 of the continent from Hudson's Bay to Alaska, whence it migrates through the 

 western United States east of the Rocky Mountains to Mexico. It was formerly 

 regarded as the young of the Sandhill Crane, but its length of about thirty-five 

 inches together with a decidedly shorter tarsus are sufficient marks by which 

 to distinguish it. This species was found by Ball to be a common bird at St. 

 Michael's, Alaska, as well as at the mouth of the Yukon, where the eggs were 

 deposited in a slight depression on the sandy beach without any pretense of a nest. 

 Its habits and appearance are similar to those of the Sandhill Crane, with which 

 it has often been confused. 



European and Lilford's Cranes. We may now turn to the Old World for 

 the remaining members of the group, pausing first to consider two species that 

 are quite closely allied to our Sandhill Crane, these being the so-called Common 

 Crane (G. grus) of Europe, which retires in winter to northern and eastern 

 Africa, and Lilford's Crane (G. lilfordi} of eastern Siberia, which in winter 

 migrates to the northwestern part of India. These were formerly regarded 

 as constituting a single species, but their distinctness seems now to be generally 

 accepted. Both are about thirty-six inches in length, the former being dark 

 ashy gray, including the secondaries, while the latter is much paler, the general 

 color being pearly gray, with the ornamental inner secondaries inclining to white. 

 The Common Crane is said to have been abundant in the fen courrtry of England 

 down to the close of the seventeenth century, but it has long since been driven 

 from there and only occurs as an occasional very rare straggler. Of its winter 

 home in the Holy Land, Canon Tristram writes: "The Crane is well known, 

 and is next to the Ostrich the largest bird in the country. It only visits the 

 cultivated region at the time of its spring migration, when a few pairs remain 

 in the marshy plains, as by the waters of Merom, but the greater number pass 

 onward to the north. In the southern wilderness, south of Beersheba, it 

 resorts in immense flocks to certain favorite roosting places during the winter. 

 The clouds of these enormous birds, four feet high and many eight feet from 

 wing to wing, quite darken the air toward evening." A few may linger to rear 

 their young in Italy, but the majority pass much farther north, some to the 



