OUL'ID.E - TIIK CRANES — TiRUS. 



413 



('!,'KS. Hu found it as far west as t\w. Kocky Mountains. Mr. >rurray mot with it on 

 liiulson's Hay, and Mr. Koss tnimd it coiunion along tlic banks ol' tiie Matkenziii 

 Jiivcr a.'i far nortli as thu Arctic coast, 



Ilcarnc, in liis "Journey to the Morthcrn Ocean" (p. L'.'t), refers to tliis sjiecies 

 iis the Hrown Crane, s])eakinj,'of it as greatly interior in Hm>. to the Whooping Crane, 

 and as being seldom more than three and a half feet in length, and not weigiiing 

 (iM an average more than seven pounds. Its haunts and manner of life are, he adds, 

 nearly tlie same as those of the larger species, ea<'h pair never having nuire than 

 two young, and tliesc being seldom able to fly before Septend)er. This speeies is 

 Idund niMch farther north than the larger one, several having been killed by him on 

 ^iarble Island; and he has also met with it on the continent as high at least as lati- 

 tude (Jo°. Jt is generally esteemed good eating, and goes by tiu' name of the "North- 

 west Turkey." Ilt^ states that the gizzard of tliis speeies is hirger than that of the 

 Trumpeter Swan, and is especially large in the young bird. In hot calm days the 

 Urown Crane nuiy be frequently seen soaring to an anui/.ing height, always Hying 

 in eireles, until by degrees it i)asses almost out of sight. Vet its note is so very loud 

 that the sjiortsman, before he ""os its situation, will often imagine the bird is very 

 near him. This species visits Hudson's Hay in far greater muubers than the larger one. 

 liichardson also states that it is found in all i)arts of the Fur Country in summer, 

 even as far as the shores of the Arctic Sea. Its flesh is regarded by him as excellent, 

 resembling that of the Trumpeter Swan in its flavor. It breeds throughout the 

 Arctic regions. 



Mr. Kennieott met with this species at Fort Resolution, May .'50, where he procured 

 two examjiles. Mr. MacFarlane obtained a skin, in the autnnni of 180.'i, from the 

 Eskimos on the Lower Anderson lUver, and an egg in June, 1804, from an island 

 in Franklin Hay. The nest is said to have been a hole scooped in the sand, and lined 

 with a considerable q\iantity of Avithcrcd grasses. A few more birds of the same 

 s])ecies evidently had nt^sts on the sanu* island, but they could not be discovered. 

 Dr. Walker met with a singlt! specinu'u of this bird at I'ond's Hay, in latitude 72°, on 

 the west coast of Baftin's Hay ; but it has been very rarely seen so far north as that 

 coast. 



An egg of this species (S. I. No. 157.31) obtained by Mr. MacFarlane in Liverpool 

 Hay, on the Arctic coast, measures 3.G.T inclies in length by 2.30 in breadth, is oval 

 in shape, and very nearly equally obtuse at either end. Its ground-color is a faint 

 washing of sepia-l)rown, and it is marked, over the entire egg, with patches of pro- 

 nounced sepia, -which become more and more deep until about the larger end they 

 form a ring of darker and still more distinct sepia. 



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