100 NOTES ON THE 
conditions of food and protection. They reach us the first 
week in April, four years out of five, and commence incubation 
by the first week in May. They generally gather loosely 
together some dried, coarse grasses and weeds for the nest, in 
which they deposit from two to four drab-brown, rough- 
shelled eggs. 
In many instances, the indications of a nest are ridiculously 
small, and not infrequently entirely wanting. I have never 
known them to rear more than one brood in a single summer, 
but there are cases in which for some reason the nesting has 
been exceptionally delayed, and quite young birds are seen 
late in July. The earlier birds, although yet unable to fly, will 
give a man a lively race to overtake them when they are six 
weeks out of the shell. In Noble and Jackson counties, some 
ten or twelve years ago, the Sandhill Cranes reared their 
young in great numbers, on the dry flat prairies, where many 
of them were often taken before they were grown enough to 
fly. Rev. Mr. Mitchell, of St. Paul, then residing in this City, 
passed through that section at the time that the young were in 
this stage of development, and ran one of them down, which 
he brought home with him, and subsequently made it a 
present to me. I kept it until it was two years of age, and 
took great pleasure in studying its peculiar habits and tract- 
ability. It wasa great joker in its way, always getting the 
better end of things. Nothing possible that it could swallow 
failed to get into its maw, from a pocket knife, double-ten nail, 
teaspoon, spools of thread, and bits of tin, to a dozen large 
sized marbles. Of course, these were after a time regurgi- 
tated, as all indigestible matters are with many of the birds of 
other orders also. He was fond of toads in the absence of 
frogs and fishes, and did not object to small chicken when he 
did not get a supply of his favorite food. By keeping his 
wings cropped, I was enabled to allow him considerable lati- 
tude, and he would often enjoy a pose on one foot, while the 
other was drawn close to his body, seeming to be asleep until 
something unusual aroused him. Immediately upon discover- 
ing him, big dogs and little dogs would dash at him to seize 
him, till noticing his apparent indifference, the smaller ones 
would desist, but the larger ones, more selfreliant would 
venture in the radial reach of his bill, after which they in- 
variably changed their minds, finding they had no further use 
for ‘‘Sandie,” a name given him by Mr. Mitchell, upon his 
capture. 
