MORGAN] SANDHILL CRANES. : 195 
Herrera,’ and also by Clavigero.? If by the word Aztlan was intended 
“place of Cranes”, and on the supposition that these tribes migrated from 
the San Juan region, the reasons for the designation are justified. The 
Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis) is one of the largest and most conspicuous 
of American birds, and is still found from the British Possessions to New 
Mexico, and winters in the latter. I saw a pair of these great birds in 1878, 
in the valley of the Animas River. Dr. Coues remarks that “thousands 
of Sandhill Cranes repair each year to the Colorado River Valley, flock 
succeeding flock along the course of the great stream from their arrival in 
September until their departure the following spring. Taller than the 
Wood Ibises or the largest Herons with which they are associated, the 
stately birds stand in the foreground of the scenery of the valley. * * * 
Such ponderous bodies moving with slowly-beating wings give a great idea 
of momentum from mere weight, a force of motion without swiftness; for 
they plod along heavily, seeming to need every inch of their ample wings to 
** Tt is an Indian trait to mark localities by some con- 
sustain themselves ’ 
spicuous feature or fact, and the selection of the Sandhill Crane to indicate 
their home country would have accorded with Indian usages. 
Again, Herrera, who presents the current traditions, observes, that 
“these peoples painted their original in the manner of a cave, and said they 
came out of seven caves to people the country of Mexico. * * * After 
the six above mentioned races departed from their country, and settled in 
New Spain, where they were much increased, the seventh race being the 
Mexican nation, a warlike and polite people, who adoring their god Vitsil- 
puetli, he commanded them to leave their own country, promising them 
they should rule over other races in a plentiful country, and much wealth.”! 
It is worthy of remark that the cave dwellings or cliff houses are in 
the San Juan district, the most of them being on the Mancos River, and on 
the western portion of the San Juan. These traditions may in fact refer to 
these cave dwellings as the original homes of their ancestors, and at the 
same time without: precluding the supposition that they also constructed 
‘General History of America, London ed., 1725, Stevens’s Trans., III, 188. 
2 History of Mexico, Cullen’s Trans., 1, 119. 
’ Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 534. 
‘History of America, iii, p. 188, 190. 
