GRrs AMERICANA AND GRIFS CANADENSIS. 267 



In tliis notice it will be my endeavour to show that the "Whooding 

 Crane {Grus Americana) and the Sand-hill Crane (6r. Canadensis) 

 are not identical birds. This assertion from an obscure naturalist, in 

 contradiction of America's two greatest ornithologists, Wilson and 

 Audubon, may well be considered presumptuous. In this brief notice, 

 however, I confine myself to the setting forth of facts which have 

 come under my own personal observation, with the hope of eliciting 

 further information from other observers. 



Audubon, in his Synopsis, the only work of his I have at hand to 

 consult, under his species Grus Americana, gives G. Canadensis as a 

 synonym without comment. "Wilson speaks more guardedly, and does 

 not seem decided, he says : 



" It is highly probable that the species described by naturalists as 

 the Gr. Canadensis, is nothing more than the young of the Whooping 

 Crane, their descriptions exactly corresponding with the latter. In a 

 flock of six or eight, three or four are usually of that tawny or reddish 

 brown tint on the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, but are evidently 

 yearlings of the Whooping Crane, and differ in nothing but in that 

 and size from the others. They are generally five or six inches shorter 

 and the primaries are of a brownish cast." He then goes on to say : 

 " The Whooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from the 

 point of the bill to the end of the tail." 



My first reason for suspecting this idea to be incorrect, was, that 

 during a visit I paid to the Prairies of Illinois some three years back, 

 I saw several large flocks of these birds, containing in the aggregate 

 some hundreds, and not one white or even mottled bird among them. 

 I was informed by a farmer, that shortly before my arrival, there had 

 been some beautiful white swans feeding on his corn in company with 

 the Sand-hill Cranes. As this was an unusual habit for swans, I have 

 no doubt they were the Whooping Crane in adult white plumage ; but 

 none were to be seen after my arrival. As this was quite at the end 

 of October, is it not probable that the Whooping Crane had passed 

 on in his annual southern journey, while the Sand-hill, a distinct 

 though closely allied species, was later in its migrations ? It is not 

 likely that young birds would be more capable of braving cold than 

 the old, or that they should be so much more numerous as to be pre- 

 sent in hundreds without a single adult individual among them. 



This may be said to be only conjecture, but what has confirmed my 



