WHITE OR WHOOPING CRANE— RAIL. 



8 



wheeling round, he again ascends with fresh activity, piping his 

 " quank, quank," as before. He is strangely attached to his native 

 forests and seldom forsakes them ; amidst the rigors of the severest 

 winter weather his lively quank, quank is heard in the bleak and 

 leafless woods. Sometimes the rain, freezing as it falls, incloses 

 every twig and even the trunk of the trees in a hard transparent 

 coat or shell of ice ; on such occasions we observe his anxiety and 

 dissatisfaction, as being with difficulty able to make his way along 

 the smooth surface. At such times he generally abandons the 

 woods and may be seen gleaning about the stables, around the 

 house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn and examining 

 the beams and rafters and every place where he can pick up a 

 subsistence. 



The name Nuthatch is very erroneously bestowed on this family 

 of birds. It was supposed that they could crack the hardest nuts 

 with their bills by repeated hammerings ; soft-shelled nuts, such 

 as chestnuts, hazel-nuts, and a few more of this description, they 

 may perhaps be able to demolish, but I never have seen them do it. 

 Hard-shelled nuts, such as walnuts, hickory-nuts, etc., they are 

 perfectly incapable of breaking, as their bills are not at all shaped 

 for that kind of work. This absurd idea may have had its origin 

 in the circumstance that we frequently observe the Nuthatch busily 

 searching for insects in heaps of shells of broken nuts, lying on 

 some old stump of a tree, or around it, brought there or broken by 

 the squirrels, whilst ignorance ascribed the broken nuts to the 

 doings of the feeble little bird. 



This bird builds his nest early in April, in the hole of a tree, in 

 a hollow rail of a fence, and sometimes in the wooden cornice 

 under the eaves ; the female lays five eggs of a dull white, spotted 

 with brown at the greater end. The male is the most attentive 

 husband and supplies his beloved mate, while setting, regularly 

 with sustenance, stopping frequently at the mouth of the hole, call- 

 ing and offering her what he has brought. At other times he 

 seems merely to stop and inquire how she is, and to cheer up the 

 tedious moments with his soothing chatter. He seldom goes far 

 from the spot, and when danger appears, regardless of his own 

 safety, he flies to alarm her. When both feed on the trunk of the 

 same tree or on adjoining ones, he is perpetually calling on her, 

 and from the momentary pauses he makes, it is evident that he 

 feels pleased to hear her reply. 



The female differs very little from the male in color, the black 

 being only less deep on the head and wings. 



PLATE III. 



The White or Whooping Crane. {Grus [Ardea] americana.) 



In former times the Cranes were classed with the Herons, to which 

 they bear a certain alliance, but were afterward, with propriety, 

 separated from them, and now form a very natural division in that 

 great class. They are all at once distinguished from the Herons 

 (Ardea?) by the bald head and the broad, waving, and pendulous 

 form of the greater coverts, and the shortness of the hind toe. The 

 Crane is found in every part of the world, but the group is, not- 

 withstanding, limited to a few species. 



Our species, the Whooping Crane, is the tallest and most stately 

 of all the feathered tribes of North America. He is the watchful 

 inhabitant of extensive salt marshes, desolate swamps, and open 

 morasses in the neighborhood of the sea and large rivers. He is 

 migratory, and his migrations are regular and most extensive, 

 reaching from the shores and inundated tracts of South America 

 to the Arctic Circle. In these immense periodical wanderings, 

 they rise to such a height in the air as to be seldom observed, and 

 form at such times regular lines in about a sharp angle, frequently 

 changing their leader, or the one that flies foremost. They have, 

 however, their resting stages on the route to and from their usual 

 breeding-place, the more northern regions ; and during their stay, 



they wander along the muddy flats in search of worms, sailing 

 occasionally from place to place with a low and heavy flight a lit- 

 tle above the surface, and have at such times a very formidable 

 appearance. Their cry is loud and piercing, and may be heard 

 at a distance of two miles ; they have various modulations of this 

 singular cry. When wounded, they attack the gunner or his dog 

 with great resolution, striking with their sharp and formidable 

 bills. They are extremely watchful, but not shy. When alone, 

 they are constantly on the alert, and a flock of them has always 

 regular guards. When alarmed, they never return to the same 

 place without sending out a number to reconnoiter. As cautiously 

 as he avoids man, he becomes as closely attached to him, when 

 once brought into his companionship; he learns to understand 

 every action of his master, knows his voice and shows his satisfac- 

 tion when he sees him : he not only regards him as his master, 

 but as his friend ; society seems to be a necessity to him. One 

 that I received from Dubuque, Iowa, which was caught on the 

 Mississippi by a trapper, and has been living with me nearly four 

 years, was at first very ferocious and could only be approached 

 with great difficulty, but is now perfectly tame. It became in a 

 very short time reconciled to its imprisonment, and is now very 

 much attached to me. 



The Cranes sometimes rise spirally in the air to a great height, 

 the mingled noise of their screaming, even when almost out of 

 sight, resembling that of a pack of hounds in full cry. On such 

 occasions they fly around in large circles, as if reconnoitering the 

 country to a vast extent for a fresh quarter to feed in. At other 

 times, they assemble in great masses, forming in regular lines and 

 standing erect, with their bills resting on the throat, whilst one will 

 step out, open his wings and dance in the most ridiculous way be- 

 fore the others — the people on the Mississippi call this " preach- 

 ing;" at other times several will dance regularly around each 

 other with outspread wings. They live chiefly on vegetable food, 

 such as Indian corn ; but readily swallow mice, rats, moles, etc., 

 with great avidity. They build their nest on the ground, about 

 one foot in height, and lay two pale blue eggs, spotted with brown, 

 as large as a goose egg, but more lengthened. The Cranes, as 

 above stated, are distinguished from the other families by the bald- 

 ness of their heads, the broad flag of plumage projecting over the 

 tail, and in general by their superior size. They also differ in 

 their internal organization, in the conformation of the windpipe, 

 which enters the breast in a cavity fitted to receive it, and after 

 several turns goes out again at the same place, and thence de- 

 scends to the lungs. Unlike the Herons, they have not the inner 

 side of the middle claw pectinated ; and the hind toe is very short, 

 scarcely reaching the ground. The brown Crane (Grus Cana- 

 densis) is no other than the young of the Whooping Crane. 



All the descriptions of former ornithologists are exactly corre- 

 spondent with the above. In a flock of ten or twelve Whooping 

 Cranes, 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 in size from the others. They are generally five or six inches 

 shorter, and the primaries are of a brownish cast, and their legs 

 are also a trifle darker. 



PLATE IV. 



The Rail. (Crex caroltnus.') 



Fig. x, Male. Fig. 2, Female. 



The Rail, or as it is called in Virginia, the Sora, and in South 

 Carolina the Coot, belongs to a genus of birds, of which, as nearly 

 as can be ascertained, about thirty-two different species are known 

 to naturalists, and those are distributed over almost every region of 

 the habitable parts of the globe. The general character of them 

 is everywhere the same. They run swiftly, but their flight is 



