GEUS CANADENSIS, SANDHILL CRANE. b33 



tributaries, excepting in Florida. There it is almiidant, accordiiig to 

 several observers. l3r. Bryant refers to its breeding, stating tliat two 

 eggs are laid, from early in Felnuaiy until about the middle of April. 

 I have met with it in various parts of the West, finding it breeding in 

 Northern Dakota, quite plentifully, on the broad prairie. Newly-hatched 

 young were secured in July, near Turtle Mountain. Late in Septeml)er 

 and early in October numbers of this species and G. americana together 

 were migrating through the same region; they appeared to journey 

 chiefly by night. Often, as we lay encamped on the Mouse River, the 

 stillness of midnight would be broken by the hoarse, rattling croaks of 

 Cranes coming overhead, the noise finally dying in the distance, to be 

 succeeded by the shrill pipe of numberless waders, the honking of 

 ■ Geese, and the whistle of the pinions of myriads of wild fowl that shot 

 past, sounding to sleepy ears like the rushing sound of a far away loco- 

 motive. 



We have accounts of the Sandhill Cranes from the wbole extent of 

 the Mississippi Valley (in the broad sense of the term), and of their 

 breeding in Iowa and' Minnesota, as well as in Dakota. In Alaska, Mr. 

 Dall says, it is a common bird at St. Michael's and around the mouth 

 of the Yukon, but less so in the interior, as at Nulato. "The egy-s, 

 obtained June 17, on the Yukon Eiver, are laid in a small depressiou 

 on the sandy beach, without any attempt at a nest." He adds thiit the 

 fibula is a favorite pipe-stem with the Indians, who, also, are fond of 

 domesticating the young; the birds eating up vermin and insects, as 

 well as refuse scraps of food about the settlements. Further south, on 

 the Pacific coast, says Dr. Suckley, Sandhill Cranes are very abundant 

 at Paget Sound, on the Nisqually plains, in autumn. "They there 

 commence to arrive from the summer breeding grounds about the last 

 week in September, from which time until about the 10th of November 

 they are quite plentiful. After this they disappear, probably retiring 

 to warmer latitudes during the cold mouths. In the iall they are found 

 on all the prairies near Fort Steilacoom, but are not indifferent to choice 

 of certain spots. These are generally old 'stubble-fields,' or spots of 

 ground that have been ploughed. They rise heavily and slowly from 

 the ground on being disturbed, and, flying in circles, at length acquire 

 the desired elevation. When proceeding from one favorite resort to 

 another, or ^vhen migrating, the flight is high, and not unfreqneutly 

 their approach' is heralded, before they are in slight, by their incessant, 

 ■whooping clamor. While feeding they are generally silent." To thits 

 account Dr. Cooper adds that the Brown Cranes are common summer 

 residents in Washington Territory, "arriving at the Straits of Fuca in 

 large flocks, in April, and there dispersing in pairs over the interior 

 prairies to build their nests, which are placed amid the tall fern on the 

 highest and most open ground, where they can see the approach of 

 danger. They frequent, at this season, tlie mountains to the height of 

 6,000 feet above the sea. The young are often raised from the nest by 

 the Indians for food." 



"In the autumn and winter," Dr. Newberry observes, "it is abundant 

 on the prairies of California, and is always for sale in the markets of 

 San Francisco, where it is highly esteemed as an article of food. In 

 August we irequently saw them about the Klamath Lakes, and early in 

 September, while in the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, the Cranes were 

 a constant feature of the scenery of the beautiful but lonely mountain 

 meadows in which we encamped. We found them always exceedingly 

 shy and difQcult of approach, but not unfrequently the files of their tail 

 forms stretching above the prairie grass, or their discordant and far- 



