104 BIRDS 



side to side. Although it has long legs and bill, it jiossesses 

 webbed feet and swims with ease. 



SANDHILL CRANE 



The Sandhill Crane ranges from Florida and Georgia 

 northward through the Mississippi Valley to Manitoba, win- 

 tering in the Gulf States. 



In America the cranes are threatened with extinction. 

 Their conspicuous size and the fact that they are less pro- 

 lific than most of our game birds account for the scarcity 

 of this great wader. The sandhill crane is local in its breed- 

 ing range. A number remain in the almost inaccessible 

 swamps of Florida to nest; in all other states of the Union 

 the bird is of rare occurrence, except as a migrant. One or 

 two pairs have managed to run the gauntlet of the gunner 

 and still retire to open marshes along the Kankakee River 

 in northern Indiana. A few pairs spend the summer in 

 remote sections of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Of late 

 years, however, northwest Canada has afforded more places 

 of refuge for the sandhill crane and its relatives, the whoop- 

 ing and little brown cranes. 



Cranes are less aquatic than other wading birds. They 

 feed largely upon dry ground, hence their food is often 

 obtainable in cultivated sections, where the bird would no 

 doubt thrive were it assured immunity by man, its worst 

 enemy. The flesh of the sandhill crane is greatly esteemed 

 among epicures, as it is not rank, like that of most large 

 wading birds, due to difference in diet. 



Their nest is a huge mass of grass or hay, arranged 



