CRANES. 



137 



These birds live in colonics composed sometimes of thousands of 

 pairs. Their day begins after sunset, when they leave their roosts and 

 start for their feeding grounds. Occasionally they utter a loud, hoarse 

 qiiawk, the origin of their common name; and looking up we nuiy 

 catch a glimpse of them hurrying through the gloom. Daring the 

 nesting season the demands of the young force them to feed both by 

 day and night. 



S03> Nycticorax violaceus (lAini.). Yellow-cieownkd Niout 

 Hekon. .!(/.— Crown wliite, guULTuUy wa»iheil with hiitly ; eur-coverts whito; 

 rt'st of tlie head and throat Ijlaek ; neck, breast, and liully Mui'-j^Tay; baek 

 tlie same; the lengthened interseaimlars, seai>ulars, anil wing-eoveits streaked 

 with black; two or three blaek and white rounded occipital plumes; lores 

 greenish yellow ; legs greenish. //«. — ("rown hhicl; the leathers streaked with 

 white or butty ; restot'tiie u]iper parts, including wing-eoverts, fuscous-brown 

 with we<lge-sbaped butl'y or wliite spots; iiriinaries i/url- hluiKh slate-color 

 without rufous ; under parts white or butty streaked with blaekisii. b., '23-00 ; 

 W., 12-00; Tar., 8-75; H.. .'5-00. 



Jiemarks. — Young bir<ls bear a general resemblance to those of the pre- 

 ceding species, but ditter in being darker, in having the head darker than the 

 back, and the jtriinari.is witliout rufous. 



liaiHje. — brei'ds from southern Illinois and South Carolina southward to 

 South America, and occasionally strays north as far as Massachusetts. 



Long Island, A. V. Canibritlge, \. V., one record, July. 



Kest, a platform of sticks, in pairs, generally in a low branch overhanging 

 water, /-'j/.'/.", four to live, pale, dull blue, 1-95 x 1-45. 



Unlike the preceding, this is a rather solitary species, and is found 

 singly or in pairs along the borders of wooded streams, and never in 

 colonies. It is also, I think, more diurnal in habits. 



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ORDER FALUDICOUE. CRANES, RAILS, ETC. 



Family Gruid^ic. Cranes. 



The Cranes number about eighteen species, of which three are North 

 American, while the remaiinng fifteen irduibit the Old World. They 

 frequent plains and marshes, and are omnivorous fe.'ders, eating frogs, 

 lizards, field-nnce, snakes, etc., and various kinds of vegetable fodd. 

 Our species migrate in flocks, but are solitary rather than gregarious 

 Jit other times of the year. Their voice is loud ami resonant. 



204. GruS americana ( /./"". V Wnoni-iMi <'i;am;; Wnin; Ckank. 

 Ad. — Top of the head, lores, and sides of the llimat dull reil, witli a thin 

 growth of black "hairs"; prinuirics l)lack, rest of tlie phunafrc wliite. Iiii.— 

 Similar, but whole head feathered, and the plumage more or less washed with 

 butty ochruceous. L., 50-00 ; VV., 2500 ; Tar., 11-50 ; B., 5-00. 



